


Fire & Gold

by Craxuan



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 11:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1427038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Craxuan/pseuds/Craxuan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang Xiao Long, wild daughter of the greatest crime lord in the metropolis Jiu Xu, has lived her seventeen years of life content and infinitely proud. But the arrival of a strange, red-cloaked young girl into the city marked the beginning of change, and soon Yang finds herself racing against time to stop a ghastly terror before all is lost with her people, her loved ones and even own her heart as stake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> This is an entry for NaNoWriMo 2013 titled 'Fire & Gold', AU Fanfiction.

The travel towards her next destination, the far metropolis of Jiu Xu, had been perilous and difficult. After analyzing the new leather map gifted by Mrs. Amberson – savior of her life and her eternal benefactor – an incredibly detailed and accurate hand-sketched layout of the north-eastern section of grand kingdom of Vytal, Ruby Rose had decided that she would make haste in a direct path towards the targeted city and estimated twenty six days of trekking, after accounting in the factor that she would avoid all major roads and settlements along the way. It had in fact taken her more than a month and many sleepless nights to finally reach the city, for more than once she had been forced to scale across huge crevices and tall cliffs, when the only available bridges had guards standing by to collect road taxes. Her temporary stay at Border 26 had been riddled with special circumstances, and comfortable it might be to sleep under a roof, she was still hunted by one of the most dangerous organizations ever existed in Remnant. Best to practice stealth and discretion at all times, if she didn't want to wake up one day without her neck.

Now that she had slipped her way into the shadowy alleys of Jiu Xu, the cloaked young girl looked up towards the cloudy afternoon sky with a frown on her face. While Ruby had been to the capital city of Vytal, Vale in the past, Jiu Xu looked from her first impression to be just as huge, if not a tad bit bigger than what she expected. There were hundreds of skyscrapers that were aligned neatly along the main roads, and they came in so many different heights and colors that instead of the welcoming feeling each individual building tried to project, they just melted all into one rather oppressive and disorderly atmosphere. Upon closer inspection, many of the buildings even looked to be terribly old or in a state of disrepair, with the worst ones jutting pipes and wires out of the walls like some gutted corpses.

Numerous colorful billboards were littered all across the buildings, advertising seemingly very dubious goods and services in both Eastern and English languages. While they might look pretty at night when the lights turned on, Ruby found them at all times to be distracting and an annoyance. But after just a few blocks the red haired girl began to see a curious pattern, and soon she suspected that they were intentionally placed that way to provide cover and hiding spots all over the city.  _No wonder I felt naked out on the streets._  As Ruby sneaked her way into a narrow edge behind a large concrete pavement, she finally let down her crimson cloak from her head, letting out a flow of crimson black hair while sighing comfortably at the release. Casually leaning against the wall Ruby gave herself ten minutes to observe the flow of people going back and forth the very busy streets of Jiu Xu.

There were construction workers drilling at a site, yellow helmets bobbing about as they yelled orders at each other; typical white collars complete with their neat suit and tie as they trod down the street; and of course there were the casual family and couples and singles, whose main purposes could only fluctuate between relaxation and shopping. What worried Ruby however was the unusual amount of raggedly worn, nasty-looking men who hung about at nearly every corner of the streets. Obviously every city has its own underground, lawless community, and in fact Ruby was searching for exactly one such crime lord to acquire her much needed information. However, she had not expected the dark men to make such an appearance during broad daylight. In fact, they were pretty much the background staple for the entire length of the street. Her urban experiences were limited, but Jiu Xu was obviously different than the other cities in the sense that the lawless' grip seemed much stronger.

This was actually good news though: She could walk up to these people and have them guide her to the contact, and even if soft persuasion failed she could always just… make a scene. They should all lead to the same result. On the other hand, things were never as simple as they seemed to be, so she had to know what to do next in case both plan A and B failed. Ruby breathed deeply; hardly a couple of hours into the Jiu Xu and already she was regretting this trip. If Mrs. Amberson's hadn't recommended this place she would never…

 _But the complaints can wait,_  Ruby thought quietly as she turned around to face a grinning, gauntlet-armed blonde woman striding towards her with all the fearlessness of a lion.

_It seems that there's something I need to take care first._

* * *

Yang Xiao Long was a beautiful young woman. She had mesmerizing violet eyes violet that drew in the souls of men like magnet, and at just the age of seventeen she has a lascivious, sexy figure that most women could never hope to achieve in their life. The young woman was certainly nowhere shy enough to hide the fact either: She wore a thin yellow vest covered over by a short brown jacket and a matching pair of brown boots, which showed an ample amount of her bosom and a firm mid-riff. She also wore super short black pants that clung tightly to her skin, and every time she took to the streets the men's gaze would automatically lock their eyes to her swaying bottom. Yang minded the attention not one bit, for it meant high praise to her natural beauty and she was proud to be gifted with them.

The young woman's most defining feature however, was the golden hair that stretched down her back like an untamed field of wheat. Already gorgeous by nature, then tempered further by meticulous care and Samurai shampoos ("We will murder those dandruff and keep your castle safe,  _shogun!_ "), the gold of her hair glowed bright yellow like the midday sun itself. There were even reports that Yang's hair would glow by itself even in the darkest midnight, although the phenomenon was in fact not a trick of the eye but her Aura in play. Yang did her best not to let it show – once in the past, when she was yet a young and boorish girl, she had accidentally lost control of her power and burned an unfortunate subordinate badly. It was not an experience that she was keen to relieve anytime soon.

The sky was grey, the clouds thundered ominously, and as if reflecting her mood today was not a good one for Yang. As she sauntered down the streets, her black mood apparently visible even to the common crowd, the people began to skirt around her with obvious alarm like Moses parting the sea. Knowing her own legendary temper, Yang took a turn into the nearest alley before the annoying glances could ignite an unnecessary emotion. The blonde girl heaved a long sigh as soon as she confirmed herself to be out of sight and alone – at least for the moment, she really needed the peace and quiet.

A few months ago, she had stumbled upon some troubling rumors that the clan's enemies were discreetly meeting each other, possibly plotting to oppose her family. While these gossips were usually false, many disturbing murders had popped up for the past few weeks too frequently to be just a coincidence. Many corpses they found had been horribly mutilated, and many of them were men of the Yang family. Just two weeks ago the Qing Dong Street exploded in a fiery inferno, resulting in three deaths of her clan men and many more injured. The perpetrator however remained a complete mystery, and their investigations had yielded absolutely no results. That should not have been possible; with the whole city practically in their grips Yang could not imagine how any group – hell, anyone – could possibly avoid her clan's full force search.

At any rate this cannot be forgiven. Yang had been making her own patrols, knowing her own weaknesses but still hoping to stumble into a lead, to no avail. But she didn't have any better ideas. It was times like these that made Yang wished that she was still around – no, Yang smacked herself in the head to get herself together. This was not the time to dwell on the past. By hook or by crook, she will stop these bombings.

 _Still, I must have missed out something_ , Yang thought in frustration, but what? I need some fresh ideas.  _I need a breakthrough. I –_

_I need a suspect like that red-haired, foreign girl who absolutely did not look like she belonged in this god forsaken city. Who is she? Why is she hiding in these shadows and observing our men?_

Ask, and yer shall receive. Yang felt a feral smile pulling at the corner of her lips. The golden-haired woman touched the cold metal of her gauntlets and strode boldly towards the turning figure. One way or another, she was going to get answers, and she would have no qualms at all smashing open some kid's teeth if it meant safeguarding the interests of her clan.

* * *

"Hi! Hello, er, friend! I need help, and I see that you might need something from me as well," Ruby said quickly before the violent-looking woman could get her own brand of say, "So why don't we swap info? It'll benefit the both of us!"

This got the blonde woman to stop just five feet away from Ruby, but the deep frown on her face did not look to remove itself anytime soon. Five feet; it was a distance far enough to make polite conversation, and did not exclude the possibility of a quick lunge in this narrow alley. Whoever she was, Ruby judged that she was proficient in fighting.

"You're polite, I'll give you that. But guess what? Polite terrorists are the absolute  _worst,_ " the gauntlet-armed fighter snarled angrily as she smashed a strong fist into her own palm, "So here's my counter offer: You spill everything you know about your organization, your purposes, your piss-ass mastermind or whoever it is who came up with the fucked up idea of blowing up  _my_  street and killing  _my_  men, and if I'm not too angry then maybe –  _just maybe_  – I'll let you leave this place alive."

 _Youch. This is not good, not good at all._  For a second there Ruby thought her secret was exposed, but after listening to the full dialogue things were hardly better. As inept she may be with negotiating with people, the red cloaked girl knew as much that replying with an 'I don't know' now would be bloody suicide. The young girl cursed herself as she tried to recall all the training her master had tutored her in dealing with difficult people without resorting to the age old steel.

"Before that, may I know who I'm talking to?" The words rolled off Ruby's tongue about as smoothly as a rusting cog, but the young girl hoped it would give her the stall needed to cool some heads.

"Haah!? You don't know me!?" Ruby mentally slapped herself in the face with biggest hammer she could imagine. The blonde woman was literally fuming in flames now – Ruby gawked at her golden, burning hair before she caught herself – but at least she hasn't charged into her like a bull … yet. Also, did her eyes just flash red? "I am Yang Xiao Long, daughter of the Wild Dragon of Vytal and heir to the greatest clan in Jiu Xu! You will call me Yang. Now stop pretending you don't know that and answer my question!"

 _The Wild Dragon of Vytal?_ That's her contact! Somehow, through sheer dumb luck she had stumbled into the daughter of the man she was looking for! Although there was a chance that the woman was just lying, with looks like hers Ruby thought it'd be pretty hard for Yang to impersonate anyone but herself. Instantly Ruby understood that this was an opportunity she could not miss. She raised both her arms into the air in a gesture of non-violence – though she was careful to conceal her weapon with her cloak – and said,

"You're his daughter? That's great! The name's Ruby," she hesitated for a second before continuing, "Ruby Rose. I have some matters that need discussing with Mr. Taiyang Xiao Long, and I would be in your debt if you can bring me to your father. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the bombing – I literally just arrived a few hours ago. I'm sorry for your loss."

Ruby resisted the urge to heave a tired sigh at the elongated reply, and waited for judgment with nervous anxiety. The blonde woman's – Yang Xiao Long's – posture stiffened at the mention of her father's name, and this time there was no mistaking the strange phenomenon: the woman's eyes flashed crimson for a split second before returning into the usual violet. This must be the extension or the source of her Aura. It should be an Emotional type, a power that reacts to the host's feelings. Ruby filed the information to the back of her mind for future use, and as if on cue Yang Xiao Long had finally answered,

"… Not many people know my Da's real name. Are you really not involved in the bombing? Are you not plotting against my clan? And what is it so important that you need to meet Da in person?"

 _She calls her dad Da? That's cute – no wait focus!_  Her hostility and suspicion seemed lesser than before, and Ruby took it as a good sign to continue being honest, "I really don't know anything like that. As for the nature of my business; I'm afraid I can't say that here – you get what I'm saying?"

The woman glared sternly into her eyes as if trying to sense the lies lurking beneath her words. Having replied with complete honesty though, Ruby simply stared back coolly until Yang started up again, "Well, it's fine if you can't state your business, but you must have some way to prove your identity. Do you have an ID? Who do you work for? Do you have someone in mind who could vouch for you?"

Ruby scratched her head at the beginnings of another round of anxiety, "Well… I'm a lone wolf, a mercenary of sorts. That's why I don't have an ID; no real ones anyway. As for the vouch…"

* * *

_"Taiyang Xiao Long. Right," It was three in the morning, and Ruby was detailing the layout of her plans verbally even as Mrs. Amberson yawned loudly into her hands. However, wanting to have the absolute best preparation in pursuing this new lead, Ruby ignored it and pressed on without a care,_

_"So I would go to the city, find a clan member of the Xiao Long clan – preferably a man of power, or if I'm lucky someone who knows him personally – and tell them my wish to meet him. I will then give them your vouch as proof of my identity."_

_"Well, cut out the vouch part then yes, that's one way of doing things," Mrs. Amberson yawned once again, this time standing up from her seat and not even pretending she was going to listen anymore. Ruby jumped up from her own in panic and quickly grabbed onto the old lady's sleeves,_

_"Wait, what? You can't vouch for me? But I thought you know each other! How am I going to see him if I can't prove myself clean?"_

_Mrs. Amberson gave her an irritable glance and shrugged impatiently, "Sure, you can use my name if you want, but don't be surprised if you wake up the next morning dead, naked, and hung upside down in the middle of the streets. He's cranky that way."_

_"… May I ask exactly what you've done to make a man so vengeful?"_

_"Oh, nothing much. We used to be lovers once," Mrs. Amberson said as if that was the answer to everything, but still Ruby refused to let go until finally, the woman sighed and relented, "I also killed his bitch wife – the_ second  _one, mind you, the one he took in after Lia passed away – because she tried to kick me out of his house. Like, who the hell does she think she is? I'll tolerate Lia, but no way in fucking hell I'll suffer through that rude little bitch... What? Murder is a legitimate way to solve love triangles, okay!?"_

* * *

"… I er, no.  _No._  I don't have anyone who can vouch for me," Ruby returned to Remnant feeling inexplicably pitiful as her gratitude for her benefactor suddenly shrunk to the size of a grain of sand. It would seem that she could not persuade this Yang Xiao Long after all. However, just as she looked upwards to excuse herself, the young girl was surprised to find the blonde studying her face intently just a few inches away.  _When did she get so near?_ Ruby leaped back reflexively and stuttered, "Erm, I er, I guess I  _can't_  prove myself, hahaha! Never mind, sorry for the inconvenience, I'll guess I'll just leave and… well. La –"

"Wait a second."

The words froze Ruby Rose at mid turn, and she rotated back like a robot to look at Yang, "Yes?"

"There's one more thing I'd like to ask you. Let's say you found out where my Da lives. Do you think you can sneak in far enough to see him?"

"Huhh?"

"Why do you look so surprised? You're a Huntress, aren't you? And don't bother denying it – you have an air of danger only our type of people could have."

"I – I –" The young girl could not stop stuttering, and for every step she took backwards the blonde woman simply closed them with her own. Ruby couldn't even laugh it off because it was exactly the Plan B she had in mind. Is this woman a mind reader or something? "Well, maybe, but of course I won't –"

" _Maybe?_  Do you know that our security is the absolute best in the whole city?" the blonde woman just kept closing in, and before she knew it Ruby had found herself backed completely against the wall. The girl couldn't suppress a squeak when Yang Xiao Long stuck her face inches away from her own while looking at her directly in the eye,

"We have hundreds of guards patrolling just the inner perimeter of our walls. We know every crook and nanny so well that not even a rat could sneak in, and even if someone got really creative, there are contingencies in place to make sure that they never get out. Of course, security is only as strong as the men guarding them, so we have plenty of elite teams patrol the area 24/7, and each one can hold their own against a horde of Grimm easily. And then there are the Three Guardians of Xiao Long."

The woman held up a palm, and a small ball of golden fire erupted at the center of it. Ruby looked completely mesmerized by its flickering, dancing patterns as Yang continued speaking, "The first Guardian would be Lie Ren, a genius martial artist practitioner whose best record so far was to slay a Rank C+ 'Giant' King Taijitu barehanded. The second one was Nora Valkyrie, a tomboy who singlehandedly cleared out every Ursa of the South side forest just because she was bored. A horrendous excuse to commit massacre really, although I guess since it's fine if it's the Grimm… And finally, there is me."

The fire suddenly flared upwards in a terrifying column of heat, threatening to burn poor Ruby's face with just centimeters to spare. Any normal civilian would've been scared out of their wits by now, but Ruby showed absolutely no signs of fear at all. Yang nodded as if she had just confirmed something, and in an instant the flames dissipated into nothingness, "I am the first and strongest Guardian out of the three, and my specialty? I burn  _everything_. So you know exactly how much danger you'd have to go through if you try to force things, and hell, that fickle bastard might not even want to see you."

Finally the blonde woman moved away with an amiable shrug of her shoulders, and Ruby sagged a little at the joy of having her private space restored, "Do you still think you can get in, girl? Do you really think you can do it?"

It was insanity. Who in their right mind would check with a sweet, innocent-looking girl their capabilities to break into their house? Better, who in their right mind would say yes? Common sense dictated that Ruby should deny the question with every breath in her lungs, and yet she had a feeling that it would not be the right thing to do. All things considered, she was inclined to believe her sixth sense since it had saved her life more times than she could count.

"If that's all, then yeah," The words were out of her mouth before she could regret her decision, and as her nervousness faded away and her tone grew firm and sure, "I don't even need to sneak in if that's all you have; I can go right through the front. Oh, but that might make my contact angry and I don't want that, so I guess it's still better for me to sneak in…?"

Yang Xiao Long gaped. In fact, she was staring so hard that Ruby could feel her face burn with embarrassment and self-depreciation.  _Here we go again, idiot,_  Ruby sighed while slapping herself silly in the head with an imaginary hammer,  _what did master say about negotiating again? Use my brain, and boy did I use not even zero point zero zero zero zero one percent of it._  Now she'd really have to break through the front, and because blondie had warning this'll become ten times harder than it should –

"Pfft. Ha. Hahahahaha!"

Ruby pulled herself away from the depressive thoughts and frowned dubiously at Yang. The blonde woman seemed to be laughing. In fact, she began laughing so hard that the entire alley was reverberating with the rather unpleasant noise. That was definitely not the reaction she was expecting at all. It took a full minute before the woman finally managed to calm herself and exclaim between gasps,

"Good, Ruby Rose! Very good! I like your style! Very well, you don't need to go ninja or crazy around the city just to see my Da. I will vouch for you and personally bring you up to Da myself. I swear this on my honor, and on one other condition," Yang Xiao Long, daughter of the Wild Dragon of Vytal, slowly moved her limbs and fell into a familiar fighting stance,

"You'll have to beat me. Show me the proof of your strength! If you're really as capable as you claim to be, then this should be no problem at all, yeah?" Yang smiled provocatively while beckoning with her right hand.

Ruby Rose cocked her head to one side as if she couldn't believe her ears. For a time she simply stared at Yang as if processing slowly the last few seconds in her head, before finally she asked, "You want to… fight me?"

"You can choose  _not_  to, but then you'll be stranded without a guide."

"Oh no, no that's fine," Ruby shook her head quickly before continuing, "So, how are we going to do this? Do we compete who gets in a hit first? Do I beat you up? I can knock you out too if you want – oh, wait, I can't, I need you to vouch for me."

In truth, Ruby had not meant to provoke Yang in anyway. She just never thought that she would lose to the blonde. Yang however obviously saw it as a counter provocation, and instantly the blonde woman's eyes flashed into red color as fire exploded throughout her entire body, "Oh, just do whatever you like, girl. Just don't cry when I knock all your teeth into your stomach!"

_Ka chink. Ka chink. Ka chink._

* * *

It was impossible. Part of her mind would not accept the reality, and it took every shred of self-control to stop herself from lunging at her opponent. What's worse was that deep down her heart Yang knew that she had not underestimated the young girl, that despite her show of uncontrollable outburst she had  _not_  once let her guard down. That's why she should've been able to dodge it. She should've been able to see it coming at least. Yang believed that even if her monster Da had been her opponent, she still would've been able to slug in a finger before being blown ten streets across the city.

But no. It pained Yang to admit it, but it was a sad fact that she never noticed the rifle behind Ruby's waist, cleverly hidden by her cloak and body until it was already too late. Three times the triggered was pulled. That was three times Yang could've died when the muzzle zipped across her heart, neck, and forehead if Ruby used real bullets instead of blank shots. Yang Xiao Long had never felt has humiliated as she was this moment in her entire life.

"I believe that counts as my win," the young girl –  _Ruby Rose_  – said hesitantly with a somewhat embarrassed scratch on the cheek, "Are you… okay? You said I can do anything, and I'd really prefer not to hurt you."  _This brat, is she… sympathizing with me? Am I really that weak in her eyes?_

Yang breathed in deeply before tapping herself lightly at the cheeks, "Haha! Gods be damned, I lost that badly huh? Never thought I'd lose this badly to a kid, but hell, that goes to show that I'm still sorely lacking. This is your win alright Ruby, and as promised I'll bring you to see Da."

"… I see. Thank you," the young girl finally relaxed her posture and released the grip she has on her weapon, and before long her blood red cloak seemed to flutter willfully and hid the weapon once again completely from view. The blonde rubbed her eyes; it's almost as if that piece of cloth had a life of its own, but surely that can't be possible, "I'm sorry if I've… hurt your pride. You aren't bad yourself, it's just –"

"You don't need to explain anything. Please," Yang held up a hand and silenced the girl. Ruby looked genuinely concerned and was most likely just trying to comfort her, but at her current state it would just be counter-productive, "Now just follow my lead, and make sure no one's tailing us. While our home location isn't a secret, the entrance I'm going to walk you in is."

Yang turned her back towards Ruby and walked away before the latter could say anything. Before long the young girl ran right up her side, and together they trod along the endless maze of alleyways in complete silence. That was the way Yang preferred it to be right now.

"You know, let's have a rematch once my business is over. I could always use the warm up."

… Or maybe not. That just wouldn't be her style after all, right? Yang grinned despite herself and declared loudly, "No problem! But don't you think it's gonna be so easy next time, big sis!"

 


	2. The Yang Family

Ruby emerged from the bottom of the sewer with great relish, sucking in deep gulps of fresh air the moment she landed on the surface. As she turned her attention to her surroundings, she noted with awe a neat garden aligned with baskets of beautiful flowers and well-trimmed grasses. Huge trees were planted and nurtured at certain sweet spots of the huge land, and the little heaven was abuzz with lively chirps singing into her ears like a lullaby. The young girl had spent most of her life traversing between northern regions, and between industrialized ruins and horrific wastelands she seldom got the chance to appreciate lush greenery, much less one that looked like a fairy land right out of the books. All but forgotten about the terrible stink that wrinkled her nose along the way, the young girl strutted left and right, up and down all over the place with child-like excitement sparkling in her eyes.

The secret path Yang had offered to guide her through was apparently the city's complex underground sewer system. On hindsight it was an obvious choice: unlike most cities, Jiu Xu was built atop the remains of an ancient ruin, and since they were usable the original underground networks were left mostly untouched. Over many years it had grown into a great metropolis; thus naturally demanding a better, larger sewage system to accommodate the influx of people, but as a result the sewers also became as convoluted as a labyrinth. Both old and new tiles mingled together to form an impossible maze too huge to even map properly, coupled with mountain loads of shit and countless ghost stories, it became a place where only the foolhardy or needy would adventure. The Xiao Long family, kingpin of the metropolis, was of course the latter one.

As Ruby continued to gawk at the surroundings, an unusually quiet Yang pulled herself out of the manhole, closed the entrance and stared at her new companion with a chagrin look on her face. The ancient sewers were massive, and the one that passed down this little garden was at least twenty feet away from the ground surface. Normally, Yang would send an encrypted radio signal for her underlings to drop a chain ladder for her to climb when she came by this way. On the other hand, Ruby Rose defied common sense and leaped out of the hole like a rocket the moment the seal was cleared. She did not propel herself using her weapon; she did not even grab the ceiling and cleared twenty feet of height with graceful ease. The feat was a burst of strength born of her strong leg muscles and Aura, and even though she was small in stature, the girl had a  _lot_  of both.

"Big sis, I know you're not a show off, but it's best to keep your skills, well, toned down around here. Not even Ren could do that without a run up, you know?" Yang soothed her shocked underling – the poor thing nearly got slammed in the nose by Ruby's sudden appearance – with a few kind words before patting her away.

"Oh, I'm sorry – can you stop calling me that already? It's embarrassing!" Ruby complained while feeling suddenly aware of own her appearance. The blonde woman simply gave her a devious grin as the duo began trekking down a small path of flat stones and said,

"But my great elder sister, you're the bee's knees! You've beaten me so thoroughly in a duel that it is only appropriate that I acknowledge you as my better! Everyone should!"

"Stop, what are you doing – ah, ahahaha," the young girl suddenly noticed that there were a lot more black suited people closing in; mostly to greet Yang but not forgetting to spare a curious look towards her, "Anyway, I'm just a normal girl with normal knees and am absolutely nothing special so just please just call me Ruby already!"

"Oh big sis! Even though you took me down  _in a second_ , even though I couldn't  _move a finger_  throughout the entire fight, you still insist that you're nothing  _special_. You are the most humble person I've ever met!" Yang exclaimed while bowing full ninety again and again dramatically at her general direction. The curious stares suddenly turned into malevolent ones, and Ruby barely maintained enough self-control not to strangle a certain someone by the neck.  _Think work, Ruby. Don't let the hateful stares of a thousand people wanting to rip you apart for humiliating their respected senior bother you! Y-yep!_  Ignoring Yang, the young girl spun towards the cobble path leading towards a huge mansion before walking off rigidly like a robot. The blonde laughed quietly as she signaled at her underlings to fall back to their posts before chasing after her back.

The short walk to the mansion was thankfully quiet, but it surprised Ruby that they took five minutes to reach the front door. The mansion was much bigger than she'd anticipated, and it was easily five times the size than any of those luxurious bungalows she'd seen at the countryside. As they stepped onto the porch – it was practically an open hall at this point – they reached a gold plated, ten meters tall double door carved with intricate Eastern dragons design and countless blessed symbols. A total of five stone pillars surrounded them to support the giant roof above them, which was also extravagantly decorated with dragon heads and mini red lanterns. Even the walls were intricately designed, with round jade symbols and stone shaped paintings and colorful windows covering much of its white space. At this point Ruby was so overwhelmed by the unfamiliar surroundings she did not even react to Yang pinching her cheeks from the side. It took the click of a scroll to finally wake her up,

"Oh. Yang, I have a question."

"Hmm? What is it, big sis?" the blonde quickly hid her scroll with quite the punch-inducing grin, But Ruby's focus was still on the building as she pointed at a strange sight,

"The pillars – why are they blank? I mean your house looks wonderful! Really! Everything except these stones…"

Indeed, in direct contrast to the rest of the building, the surface of these five pillars was curiously void of any decoration whatsoever. Yang looked surprised at her insight as she explained,

"Do you know about our culture? As you can see our mansion is decorated with countless symbols, from dragon's head to gold color to  _feng shui_  so on and so on. There are commonly known as the embodiment of wealth, power, good luck and prosperity, so of course we'd like to put it up as many as possible."

She then pointed at the five stone pillars, "However, people can lose sight of themselves when they have too much of a good thing, and these five pillars are here to serve as a reminder. They may be commonplace and uninspiring, but without their support this whole front portion of the building would definitely collapse to the ground. They're here to serve as a reminder that no matter how great our clan became, no matter how much blessings we were granted, we should never forget our roots as a human. That only through hard work and endurance we can make this prosperity last for a very long time."

"… Wow. That was deeper than I thought," Ruby nodded as she pressed a finger at the pillars, feeling their smooth texture underneath her skin, "For all your looks you actually know your stuff."

Yang feigned a look of mock hurt as she walked towards the double doors, "I'm hurt, sis! Which part of me look illiterate to you? Besides, you should never judge a person on first impression!"

"Really? Who's the one who want to smash a cute girl's teeth on first meeting?"

"Uh…" That got Yang good as she absentmindedly pushed a switch against the wall, causing the double doors to groan open, "On hindsight, when there's a maniac running around in the city killing left and right, people tend to get a little anxious, right?"

But Ruby wasn't paying attention to her. The moment the metal doors opened a sizable two shadows abruptly dashed out right towards her, and in less than a second she found a pair of knives pressing against her throat and the biggest hammer she had ever seen stuck before her eyes. Ruby briefly wondered if her nightmare had suddenly come to life, except that even in her head the hammer wasn't  _this_  huge.  _Hmm… is that a grenade launcher this thing's attached to?_

"So are we breaking her legs first, or go straight for the head!?" the hammer wielder said in a cheery tone.

"Wow, wow guys, cool your horses! This girl here is my acquaintance," Yang immediately stepped in front of the trippy girl while pushing away the hammer. She then looked backwards at the person behind Ruby and said, "Like seriously, stop. How many times do I have to tell you this is not the best way to welcome our guests?"

"You never informed us, so we only know her as a stranger who came through our secret passage without permission," a calm, male voice rang out from behind Ruby's ears, "I formally apologize for our rudeness, young Miss. But you'll have to leave your weapons behind before you can proceed."

Yang looked like she wanted to say more, but Ruby interrupted suddenly, "The name's Ruby, and I'm afraid I can't, Mr. Lie Ren. My weapon is my life, so please let me have her. I swear I won't bring harm to anyone."

The young man flicked a surprised eyebrow at Yang before he replied, "I see that Yang placed great trust in you to tell you our names. However rules are rules, and I am in no position to disobey them. Nora, if you'd please."

"Ren, I don't think that's a –"

Abruptly the blonde stopped herself before a wicked grin floated upon her lips, and at the same time Nora too gave a surprised yelp. Somehow Ruby had maneuvered her gun to press its muzzle directly against Ren's groin, and with an obvious click of the hammer she knew without looking that the man's face had turned a shade paler. But he remained calm. Ruby was impressed that other than the initial spike of his heartbeat, she could feel no other disorder from his body, "This isn't wise, miss Ruby. You are trading away your life."

"Interesting. Wanna bet? I bet I can shoot you and get away before you can do anything," Ruby declared with such confidence that even Nora looked hesitant. But Ren himself was no coward as he spoke as emotionless as ever,

"Maybe you can kill me, but that will make you our enemy. The price of angering the Xiao Long family is very –"

"Okay, enough with the threats, both of you," Yang wriggled her fingers at a reluctant Nora before turning towards Ren, "I brought her here. I will vouch for her integrity."

Ren shot an unusually intense glare towards Yang before replying, "Yang, forgive me for saying this, but the last 'guest' you brought in wasn't exactly a model citizen."

For a second Yang's eyes blinked red as a cold, murderous intent burst out of her torso, but before Ruby could express her surprise the blonde gave a quiet sigh and it disappeared as quickly as it came,

"Ren, I know I'm not the most honorable person around, but I swear to you she can be trusted. Besides, who cares if she tries anything funny? Da is around. He'll rip her apart so fast she'll need tapes to know how she died."

"Hey! I will have you know that I am a  _very_  good Huntress!" Ruby exclaimed indignantly.

Yang rolled her eyes deliberately before turning towards Ren. For a moment they stared unblinkingly at each other until finally, Lie Ren heaved a huge sigh and dropped his arms. Relinquished from the pressure, Ruby rubbed her aching shoulders while giving her captor – a greed clad man with black hair and sharp pink eyes – a dangerous glare, but the next instant Yang slapped the back of the girl's head in warning before laughing boisterously,

"That's settled! Now, are we going to go in or what? Sun's wasting!"

Ren briefly glanced at Yang's direction before looking away, "Right. Nora, you can stop holding that hammer over Miss Ruby. Yang, please do you best to give us a warning the next time you break the rules, and… I'm sorry. For bringing that up."

There it was again, the hint of sorrow warping the blonde's face, but Yang quickly dismissed it with a laughter, "It's fine, it's fine! Like ugh, you really need to get out man; all these formalities are giving me the creeps!"

"The clan will fall within the day if I don't watch over you and Nora. Now then, I believe that we've wasted enough time. Let's go."

With that, Ren calmly took the lead and walked straight into the mansion. Nora puckered her lips dissatisfiedly at the anti-climatic ending, but after a simple shrug later she too trailed after Ren with springs beneath her steps. Ruby and Yang quickly did the same, and as Yang cheekily stuck a tongue at the duo before she gave Ruby a smile, "Well then. That was a little dangerous, dontcha think so sis?"

"It will be dangerous for you if you hit my head again," the red cloaked girl puffed her cheeks and looked away with crossed arms, but it was obviously just a front. The blonde laughed at her childish antic and said,

"Hahaha! Strictly speaking this is your own fault. I've never seen anyone talking so boldly with a knife to their throat; Ren really would kill you even if he has to lose his balls in the process, you know?"

The black-haired Guardian in front of them stumbled immediately, but to his credit he stood back up and continued as if he hadn't heard anything. Yang cackled wickedly at scoring a blow, but to her side Ruby said seriously,

"He will not. I told you earlier, didn't I? I can take you all on except your father. Do you really think I'll let him come this close, if I'm not a hundred percent sure he can't harm me?"

All this time Nora was running circles around Ren like a satellite, but at Ruby's declaration her attention fell completely onto the arrogant girl. Ren quickly grabbed his impulsive companion by the arm before she could try anything crazy, but even he turned to shower Ruby with a wary, almost challenging look before turning his attention back to the front. Meanwhile, Yang Xiao Long was panicking. She had no idea how the girl managed to turn a reasonably amiable atmosphere into a powder keg in less than a minute.  _Is she stupid or something!?_  Grabbing the petite girl by the shoulders, she whispered furiously into her ears,

"Stop provoking them! Do you seriously not want to meet my Da?"

"But I was only telling the truth…"

"Maybe you are. But in this case the 'truth' is going to piss people off so much that you'll never achieve your goal! Is it worth it? No? Then shut it, okay!?"

"… Sorry."

The rest of the journey progressed in uncomfortable, but thankfully eventless silence.

* * *

"Wow."

Ruby could not suppress a gasp of awe as she looked all around the interior of the various rooms and pathways she passed through. While she would be exaggerating if she said that she had not seen this kind of luxury, but compared to the Xiao Long family they were like piss in a pot. The floor was made of smooth, polished marble which was cool to touch and helped lowered the interior temperature down to a soothing level. The walls – all military grade reinforced steel and concrete, with certain places welded together by the hardest Dust in the world – were hung with a near endless amount of portraits and paintings, and Ruby actually recognized some of them to be incredibly famous arts she had only seen in old books. Along the way, they've even passed through a room filled with stone carvings and statues, and while most of them seemed to be DIY, again Ruby recognized a couple of super famous and super expensive sculptures that had her shudder in awe just walking past them. It was a nerve wracking experience to say the least; the young girl could not fathom how the servants could clean this every day without the fear of breaking them.

At this point, out of pure curiosity Ruby could not help but ask Yang exactly what kind of business they conducted to be this rich, but the blonde woman simply smiled enigmatically and did not answer. Ruby didn't mind it one bit; they were all just people who did what they had to do.

"Here we are. Please wait a second while I inform the Master. Nora, please don't play with that vase."

"Alright Ren! Heeheehee!"

Before she realized, they've arrived at a single room hidden at the end of the hallway to the right of the massive exhibition hall. It was relatively small but cozy, with rows of gold embroidered chairs surrounding a large oval table at the center of the room. At the end of the table was a seat obviously larger than the rest, and it looked to be carved out of heavy stone with two dragon heads framing the top side of the chair. Obviously this this was a meeting room of sorts. As Yang pulled a seat for the gang, Ruby looked towards the far end of the corner to spot another room with its door half-open. A simple wooden plate hung off the metallic handle, and although she did not recognize the strange characters Ruby was willing to bet that they meant the name of the master of this household, Taiyang.

With a quick knock Lie Ren entered right away while leaving Ruby and the others to stew at their seats. Ruby didn't mind it; considering who she was meeting she counted herself lucky to even get an audience. She didn't know Taiyang, but she did know about the Wild Dragon of Vytal, said to be the most ferocious Huntsman whose destructive power was said to be unmatched by anyone across Remnant. She would do well not to anger her host, and Ruby settled herself for a long wait as Yang cheerfully brought them a few cans of soda to make time pass easier.

However, the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes dragged into hours, and never the patient woman to begin with Yang Xiao Long finally couldn't take it anymore and jumped on her feet, "What the hell is taking them so long? They should've called us a long ago! That's it, I'm going in!"

To Ruby's surprise, Nora blocked the blonde's path with a casual smile on her face, "I'm afraid not! No one enter Master Taiyang's room without permission, remember?"

"Are you serious? It's been three hours! Three.  _Hours!_  A little more than that and we can have dinner already!"

Ruby glanced at the orange-haired Guardian momentarily, noting once again that Nora Valkyrie was one of the strangest people she had seen in her life. Just a moment ago she had run around as hyperactive as a six years old, and now she is suddenly the loyal guard who brook no offense. It was especially jarring when she recalled their first meeting, when the girl had threatened her with her gigantic hammer with barely restrained blood lust. Even her outfit was kind of strange: Nora wore a collared black vest that ended at her waist, and beneath it were two layers of clothing, colored red and light blue respectively. She also wore a white, sleeveless top with an open heart shape just below her neck, and a detached sleeve on each arm. Finally, the girl sported a pink skirt that ended at mid-thigh and pink white shoes with pink laces. Ruby was sure the outfit was meant to give a cute and endearing impression, but it was like watching a bull strutting about in a pink-and-white dress. Very jarring.

"I can wait, Yang. Let's not trouble Master Taiyang until he's ready," Ruby tried to appease the increasingly aggravated woman to no avail. The blonde began stomping in a circle as loudly as she could while saying,

"You don't know him, big sis. I'm pretty sure he's working on some boring as hell documents, and sometimes he would work on them all the way until  _midnight._  I am not going to waste the entire day waiting when there are better things to do!" Yang tried walking into her Da's room again, but again Nora easily kept her rooted in place with a simple grab of the wrist. Yang stared exasperatedly at her companion until suddenly, something clicked inside her head,

"Hey wait a second I'm the Master's daughter, dammit! Why can't I go in?" Yang exclaimed.

"So? You know there's no special privilege in our group! Equal status to everyone!" Nora chirped in without missing a heartbeat.

"But you let  _Ren_  in!"

"He has to report to Master Taiyang! You're just there to burn shit u – I mean, cause trouble." Ruby accidentally spit out her fourth glass of juice and quickly turned away to hide her laughter, pretending not to notice the pointed scowl on Yang's face,

"Okay, so if I promise that I won't make any trouble and that I just want to ah,  _report_ , can I go in then?"

"Hmm..." the orange head looked deep in thought as the eyebrows on her head knitted tighter and tighter. Just when Yang thought she'd finally convinced her pal, Nora broke into a most wonderful smile and said, "Nope!"

"Aarrrggghhhh!" Yang exploded into flames, turned to look at Ruby who looked to the other side of the room because she didn't want to get involved, got even angrier before finally growling in a deadly tone, "That's it, on the count of three, if you don't let go I'm gonna punch you so hard that you'll –"

"– do nothing of that sort. We do not punish our kin for upholding the rules of our clan. You on the other hand, daughter, seem to be in need of a lesson."

Abruptly the two women stopped scuffling, and everyone's attention was drawn towards the fearsome who had emerged from the room, with Ren following his footsteps right after with a respectful bow. There was no doubt that this six feet tall blonde-haired giant of a man clad in black traditional clothes Taiyang Xiao Long, lord and hero of this metropolis. His presence alone rivaled some of the strongest fighters she knew, and despite knowing the Wild Dragon of Vytal to be a man of great power her imagination still fell short of the reality before her. Suddenly she realized something chilling:  _Yang's right. If he decides to become an enemy, I might not make out of this place alive._  The young girl instinctively sought out her weapon for comfort, but she quickly let go and forced herself to have a blank but suitably professional expression.

Yang obviously wasn't feeling nearly as much pressure as Ruby was as she strode up towards her father until their distance between them became uncomfortably close, "There you are, Da! What the hell took you so long? We've been waiting here for three hours!"

"Work," Taiyang replied flatly, "A task that you just don't seem to get its importance. One that you'll have to do eventually, if the Xiao Long clan is to continue its great fortune."

"Never! They're all stupid stuff anyway!" Yang replied cheerfully while being intentionally oblivious to the fact that she had just indirectly called her father stupid. Ruby wiped away a cold sweat on the woman's behalf, "Anyway, now that you're here we can finally talk about business. And by that I mean this cute little red here called Ruby Rose!"

All the sudden the entire hall quietened as if encased in ice, and before Ruby knew it she had jumped all the way back to the furthest edge of the room with her rifle blocking stiffly before her. Everyone but Taiyang was shell shocked by the sudden turn of events, and even as the young girl realized that she had made a terrible mistake, she simply could not put her gun away in the face of this unbelievable killing intent threatening to choke her where she stood. Demons be damned, she couldn't even move a single step!

Yang was the quickest to realize what transpired as she acted to stop her father, "Da, what are you doing!? She's a –  _Aghh!_ "

"That is my question, daughter," Taiyang said mildly even as the immense pressure expanded not just onto Ruby, but also everyone else in the room. Nora looked furious as she struggled against the unexpected pressure, only to slip on her feet and knock her head on the floor. Lie Ren's face was ghostly pale as he knelt on one knee, shivering like a ship battered on all sides by the great sea. Yang was the only one other than her who managed to remain upright, "I thought you'd have learned from past experience. Do you have any idea who you've just brought through our front door?"

"This has  _nothing_  to do with Lily!" Yang shouted in irritation.  _Who?_ To her great surprise, Yang actually managed to resist the pressure better than her, as the blonde stepped right between her and her father with a determined look on her face, "And Ruby is not a threat to us! She is  _my_  friend, so you stop this right now!"

"Your friend? I have no idea you have friends among  _The Order,_  Yang," Ruby's eyes widened in shock –  _how does he know?_  – "Not familiar with the term? I guess I should be thankful then, because god help us if you've come across them and haven't bothered to enlighten me," the old man stared at her with cruel red eyes, and it took all her willpower not to bolt for the exit, "So let me ask you again: Is she  _really_  your friend?"

Ruby thought that she was done for then, but once again Yang stood up for her like a blade that cut right through the darkness, "Of course she is. Sure I don't know where she comes from and who she's affiliated with, but if I'm the type to dig every dirty shit behind every person I've met I would've left this place a long time ago. So she's dangerous. Who cares? We're just as bad! At the very least, she isn't the kind of person who will stab us the moment we turn our backs. I trust her, so I brought her here." Ruby couldn't see it from her position, but the Yang's eyes had turned completely crimson, "Or are you saying you don't trust  _me?_ "

They held each other's glare for a second. Then two. Then ten seconds went by before finally, Taiyang sighed in resignation before releasing his battle pressure. Immediately vertigo struck Ruby as she leaned heavily against the wall, holding up wobbly knees and feeling an embarrassing amount of relief, but at least she was doing better than Yang, who for all her bravado collapsed on her back like a pin that just got smashed by a bowling ball.

"Forgive my rudeness, Miss Ruby," Taiyang walked towards the nearest corner and sat down on a stone chair. He then motioned her to take the seat beside him, and after a brief moment of hesitation, she complied, "But I had to test you. Unfortunately, I don't have the best relationship with your… kind. I apologize if I've offended you."

"Oh, don't mind me. They were never a social group to begin with." Ruby replied wryly as she rubbed her own hands to get some feeling back to them. Now that she could think, she realized that no normal Huntsman could've reacted like she did against Taiyang's Aura pressure; certainly not one of her age, which was the main reason she gave her identity away, "Before you say anything, I want you to know that I'm no longer with them. There is something I have to do no matter what, and The Order disagrees with me. So I ran away."

The shine in Taiyang's eyes glowed brighter with interest, "Ran away? I wouldn't think it possible, although you have proven to be quite the fighter."

"I was lucky. I was on a year long solo extermination mission at some of the coldest places of the North, so..."

Taiyang followed every word with obvious attention, but then he frowned deeply when he saw Yang still lying on the floor, but creeping closer with her fingers trying to listen in. The old man abruptly grabbed hold of a vase on the closest shelf and flung it at his daughter, causing the latter to yelp and leap to her feet.  _Ooh, she caught the cactus with her bare hands, that must've really hurt_ , "What the hell Da! – Ow ow  _ouch!"_

"Daughter, this is private business," Taiyang said sternly even as Ruby marveled at their 'astounding' father and daughter relationship, "And since you never showed any interest in them before, I'm sure you would rather be somewhere else."

Yang, in complete contrast to her seriousness before, complained like a child who just had her cookie stolen, "But Da, I'm the one who brought her here! And I want to know more about to Ruby too; it's totally unfair that you get to know things even though you're the one threatening her from the beginning! Cheater! Asshole!  _Fuckface!_ "

 _Is he_ really  _your father, Yang?_  The veins on Taiyang's forehead bulged dangerously, and Ruby quickly interjected before Yang could derail the subject any further, "It's okay, Master Taiyang, she can stay here if she wants. Erm, the same goes to Ren and Nora," she motioned at the duo who was standing guard at the far corner of the room. The duo looked surprised at the unexpected offer, and before Ren could decline Nora had already bounced towards Ruby with an incredibly excited look on her face, "Can we really? Really? Really! That's so kind of you Ruby thank you!"

"Just call me Taiyang. Nora, move away, you're scaring our guest. Also, are you really sure?" the master asked with a mix of concern and curiosity, "I thought that you would like to remain anonymous."

"Well, yes, that would be best," Ruby paused a little before looking at a surprised Yang, "But I owe it to Yang to tell her the truth – or at least, some of it – about myself. She helped me a lot even though I was just a stranger. This is the least I can do to repay her generosity."

Yang held herself high and grinned as proudly as a peacock, even though Ruby spotted a red tint on her cheeks, "Hah! That's right! I know you're a good girl from the beginning, Ruby!"

Suddenly the young girl felt like teasing her a little, "… You were going to punch me when we first met though."

"That was, uh," Yang stuttered at the unexpected jab. Normally she would return the favor in a heartbeat, but everyone was staring at her like she was a psychopathic murderer, "What the hell, it was just a mistake!"

"No need to show off, we already know you're an idiot," Taiyang sighed tiredly.

"Agreed."

"No objections there."

"Yay!"

"Hey!"

* * *

"So," Taiyang took a sip from his cup of tea. Lie Ren was surprisingly an amazing tea brewer, "Now that we've settled ourselves, shall we begin?"

"Yes," Ruby nodded as she took a taste from her own, and then another. The long jǐng chá – translates literally to 'Dragon Well Tea' – was so exquisite that she had to physically restrain herself from taking another sip, "Let me start by introducing myself again. I am Ruby, Ruby Rose. Please call me Ruby. And I... am a former Executioner of a covert organization called The Order."

There was only silence. Except for Taiyang no one knew what an Executioner was, and Lie Ren had clamped a hand over his noisy friend's mouth so she couldn't interrupt,

"For as long as I could remember, I've lived and trained under The Order's roof. I have no memories of my parents, and I do not even know if they're still alive – it doesn't matter," Ruby shrugged carelessly at the sympathetic coos from Nora and Yang; as far as she's concerned there was only one person whom she would acknowledge as her true parent, "At any rate, I was brought up to know only two things in my life: secrecy, and Demons. By the way, Demons are a higher,  _intelligent_  existence of Grimm, in case some of you are unaware. 

The first one is obvious. The Order strives first and foremost to keep their existence a secret, because they are essentially an independent organization that operates completely outside the boundaries of the law. As far as the world is concerned they never existed. As forgotten ghosts that no one will ever know or remember, the Executioners live and die for only one purpose, and that is to exterminate every Demon in the world."

Ruby waited. Sure enough, Nora resolutely peeled Ren's hand away from her mouth – not that the guy stood a chance in the first place when she really tried – and chirped in her two cents,

"Ruby!"

"Miss Ruby, Nora," Ren sighed.

"Whatever!" Nora continued to stare at Ruby with a childlike smile, "Ruby, I'm the not the most intellectual person to talk about this, certainly not even close to Ren's level, but! I thought Demons don't exist, or at least not since the Grimm War, right?"

"They do," Ruby shook her head firmly to emphasis the point, "They have always been here, and they are terrifying monsters you never want to face in your life. The Order's entire existence was created to combat these thingsand keep them forever away from the realms of men, but unfortunately, even that purpose seemed to have changed as of late," Ruby said bitterly.

"Er, Ruby," Yang raised a hand, "How strong are these 'Demons' exactly?"

"Let's see. What's the hardest Grimm you've fought so far?"

"Er, a Rank B 'Giant' Deathstalker. Accidentally disturbed it while I was exploring a nearby cave," the young woman scratched her head with slight embarrassment, "Since I was alone, it's less 'fighting' and a lot more 'running away like hell' though."

Ruby nodded with a smile, "That sounds about right. Yeah, the weakest Demon is about the same level as your Deathstalker."

"… You're kidding."

"I wish," her face darkened a little as she unconsciously tapped Crescent Rose, "Let's take a Rank F 'Mini' Creep-type Demon for example. It has the same form and shape as a normal Creep, except that it has 3 legs instead of 2 and blood red shells. Its attack pattern is a zig zag dive mid-air – don't ask me how the physics work; I've only learned how to kill them – through a Huntsman's chest, and it can bite with power equivalent to a Deathstalker's pincers. The common Huntsmen would get crushed alongside their weapons without ever knowing what hit them, and just like a normal Creep they don't hunt alone," Ruby saw everyone but Taiyang's face paled at the thought of facing such a monster, and nodded grimly, "I think you get now the kind of danger we're talking about."

"Er, Ruby, if I may, how old are you again?" Yang asked suddenly.

The young girl scratched her head at the unexpected question, but she answered honestly, "Fifteen."

"And how long have you been with The Order?"

"Since I was five. Got caught when I pick-pocketed the wrong person," the young girl smiled with a mix of self-derision and fondness for the old memory, "I started hunting Demons since I was nine. Those were the days."

To her complete surprise, Yang suddenly slammed a loud fist onto the table with an absolutely furious look on her face. Taiyang frowned at the loud ring resulting from her metal gauntlets coming in contact with the marble table, but Yang was too angry to give notice, "You're telling me that you fought these – these monsters since you were  _nine years old?_  Order my ass, what the fuck is  _wrong_  with your organization?"

Abruptly Ruby understood why Yang was so angry. While most Huntsmen and Huntresses were trained at a very young age, they usually weren't put to test against a real Grimm until the age of eleven with supervision, and even then their fiercest opponent was either a Rank F 'Small' Beowolf or Ursa. The notion of pitting these kids against a Grimm that could rip full grown adults like wet paper was certainly outlandish… but only to the common society.

In fact Ruby's first kill was a Rank E Beowolf-type Deviant, but she saw no reason to tell Yang and rile her up further, "Yang, please, it's not as bad as it sounded. Besides I survived, didn't I? In fact, from what I've seen so far I'm actually quite worried about the general Huntsman's combat strength. Here's a question: how long do you think the best Huntsmen team in Jiu Xu will take to kill that Deathstalker of yours?"

"Team QRTZ (Quartz)? In a flash of course! Teal can solo it down without even moving a finger!" Yang brightened visibly at the mention of her home team.

"On average how old are they?"

"Around twenty five."

"And how long do you think it'll take you to kill that Deathstalker? Well okay, you, Ren and Nora as a team."

"Er..." the blonde turned to look at Ren who was shaking his head, while ignoring Nora's excited ' _half_  a flash!' comment, "I guess twenty minutes… maybe? I really can't say because that's the only 'Giant' type Grimm I've ever seen in my life. The hunting grounds here are pretty low level."

"And that's a problem. Don't you see? Give or take, the average age of a Huntsman barely qualified to call themselves 'passable' is 20 years old. When does a Grimm learn to kill people? The moment they're born. How long can they live? Forever, or as far as humans can remember anyway. And how many Grimm are out there? You'll never get a straight answer from any government, but the proper answer is ' _infinite_ '. And this without accounting for the threat a Demon represents."

Ruby sipped her tea before saying with the utmost seriousness, "I have heard recently about the propaganda boasting that we are at an unprecedented time of peace. That is bullshit. Every time someone dies, our numbers decline. Every time a Huntsman dies, their life and the lives of the people they fail to protect goes with them. Despite technological advancement mankind is inching ever so slowly towards destruction, and if it isn't hard enough already those things, those Demons are lurking out there, just waiting for appropriate moment to strike. Of course, there aren't many of them – we would've already been wiped off the planet otherwise – but they exist, and as long as they do people will die.

I for one, am very glad that I am trained at a very young age. That means I'm now strong enough to face those things, strong enough to kill them before they kill  _me_." Ruby said darkly, not noticing the worry etched on Yang's features, "I have no desire to sit around and wait for my doom. If there's anyone who's going to be the reaper, it will be me who holds the scythe. No matter how many they numbered, no matter how powerful they are, let them all come – I'll kill them all."

* * *

Ruby did not realize that she was trembling. In fact, when she finally came to her entire body was drenched in cold sweat. Her fingers nearly slipped when she tried to calm herself down with a sip of tea. This was the second time she ever confessed to anyone about herself.

"I believe that would be enough background stories for now, Ruby," Taiyang suddenly spoke, his tone both strong and soothing to the heart, "You are here, for a reason. How can I help you?"

"Yes," Ruby said with soft gratitude, "That's right. As I've mentioned before, I left the Order because there are things that I must accomplish, and I came here because an acquaintance told me that you have the information I need," she shivered involuntarily at lingering thoughts of the past, "Please – do you know about the Lost Altar? Can you tell me where to find it?"

The old man froze, his composure all but gone as he wore a look of utter shock and disbelief. For a second Ruby thought that Taiyang might attack her – in fact his body language said that he was all but poised to strike – but before long, amidst the alarmed looks around them, the old man heaved a long, terrible sigh and set his teacup onto the table.

Yang moved closer with worry on her face and asked tactfully, "Hey Da, are you okay? Do you need to take a break?"

"I'm fine," Taiyang waved a hand impatiently, although he seemed gladdened by his daughter's concerns, "Who told you about that? That's not a secret a girl like you should ever know about, unless –" his eyes suddenly burned with an intensity that startled Ruby, and when he spoke there was a note of near wonder, "I am a fool. Of course – Ruby  _Rose_. And you look  _so much_  like her when she's younger; it's just been so long – Will you happen to be her  _child_ , my dear…?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean no I – I'm just her apprentice!" Ruby shook her hands frantically while feeling her entire face turning beef red with panic, "I mean, she asked me if I want to, you know, and I said yes because, because – what was I  _thinking!?_  I can't possibly deserve the honor anyway; I should change it right now, I –"

"Relax, Ruby, the name suits you well. It suits you  _very_  well, so take a deep breath – come, I'll pour you some more tea – and relax, okay?" Taiyang smiled widely and patted the young girl softly at the back as Ruby slowly but surely calmed her racing heart down. She never thought she'd meet another one of her Master's acquaintance. This must be a most unusual gesture from the stern man, because Yang's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Ren had to wrestle Nora to the ground just to shut her up, "I must say that I had never expected to hear anything about her again, much less meeting her daughter – that woman has always been so enigmatic and secretive."

"I'm sorry, Master Taiyang, but do you know my master… well?" Ruby asked curiously. Her master had always been quiet about her past, and no matter how many times asked the woman about her past adventures, she would just give her an enigmatic smile and leaked nothing at all. However, Taiyang seemed to know a great deal about her mentor, and she felt incredibly curious about their relationship.

"I suppose you can say that, yes. We've used to travel together in the past, riding on an airship and flying all over the continent!" Taiyang laughed heartily while slapping a big hand onto her back; his pretense of politeness completely changed into friendliness. For a second, Ruby thought she could see the young man Taiyang might have been in the past, "Those were good times, really! In fact, if it wasn't for that Ozpin I would've made her my woman too! Hahahaha!"

Ruby froze like a statue. Yang, being the daughter saw it coming from miles away as she covered her face and moaned in a low note of despair,  _"Daaaaaaaaaa…"_

"Oh, sorry, that was incredibly rude of me," Taiyang coughed into his hands while trying to keep some semblance of professionalism, even though in Ruby's head the man's image had already shattered into a million pieces, "So, how's she doing nowadays? The only person in the gang I'm still in contact with is Ozpin, and even that the bastard is too busy to chat lately."

 _He didn't know,_  Ruby realized while feeling a sense of cold dread, even as her voice became choked at the center of her throat,  _should I tell him? Obviously he'll be happier if he doesn't know about it. Maybe I should just lie and pretend that everything's okay. And yet… is this really the right thing to do? He's master's companion, he… he deserved to know._

Her breathing hitched, her eyes suddenly blinked on and off like someone was playing with the lights.  _Not here. Stop._ She tried to control her heartbeat, but it was racing so fast. So fast, "I…" Taiyang's initial joyful look was slowly replaced by doubt even as the girl tried yet again to speak something, anything at all, "She's…"

"Da, are we  _really_  going to talk about another woman in mother's favorite hall?" Yang's voice rang like a gong through the heavens, seemingly realized that whatever news Ruby had was not a good one and interrupted the talk just in time. Her eyesight suddenly returned to normal again, and the wave of relief that followed after felt almost too good to be true, "In fact, aren't we getting sidetracked here? It's gonna take a whole goddamn week if you talk about those dusty old stories no one cares about, so let's get down to business already!"

"Hey, my adventures were absolutely glorious, you useless daughter!" Taiyang snapped instinctively as the grinning blonde stuck a tongue at him before shooting Ruby a secret wink. The young girl gave a near imperceptible nod, wishing there was a better way to tell Yang exactly how grateful she was. Taiyang turned to look at Ruby dubiously again, but this time the young girl felt well enough to return a smile before saying,

"I'm sorry, but I haven't seen my Master in a while. You know how she is."

None of her words are lies, so Taiyang couldn't see anything wrong with her words. Finally he answered, "Bah, that woman. Always running across the globe trying to save the world. But I guess we can talk about her some other time." He drained his tea cup in one go, gave a smack of the lips before finally turning serious,

"Now then. About the Lost Altar, you're in luck. I happen to know its current location, and although it's a little tight I believe you have enough time to make it there before the next cycle. You know about the 5 years cycle, do you?"

Ruby nodded, "Yes I do. It's almost four years, so the next one will be seven months from now, am I right?"

Taiyang gave her an appraising look, "Yes. Let's see. You can take an airship if you want to reach there fast, but the last hundred miles stretch must be trekked on foot. Don't want to draw any unnecessary attention to it."

"Don't worry, I'll walk all the way. From what you've shown me I don't think it'll take too long; five months give or take," the young girl yawned into her mouth and looked at the golden clock hanging above the ceiling – it's eight at night, and since she had gotten what she came for she really shouldn't delay her host any further, "I thank you greatly for your help, Master Taiyang. I won't betray your trust."

"For Rose, this is nothing. You are her daughter, and I would do anything for her – well, almost everything, considering that I owe my life to her," Taiyang rolled his eyes at Yang's scathing glare before smiling benevolently at the red haired girl, "Now then, I believe it's past time for dinner. Will you care to join us? I hope you're not in too much of a hurry."

"Well… I'm not sure if I should stay. The Order might've caught wind of me," Ruby replied hesitantly, but Taiyang gave her a confident smile as he said not without a hint of steel under his voice,

"Don't worry, those maniacs won't dare to enter to my dominion. I've taught them a lesson long ago they won't soon forget."

At the same time, Yang too came over and slung a friendly arm over her shoulders while saying, "You can trust Da on this! Our men won't breathe a word about the guests who visits this house, so you don't need to worry about anyone leaking your presence here. Also, it's just one night! C'mon, don't be a spoilsport!"

"I… well, okay, I accept, I guess – Wuaahhh?"

Out of nowhere, Nora Valkyrie had leaped over her seat into the air to crash onto the duo like a heavy rock. Even Master Taiyang himself had to move a few steps out of the way as Lie Ren, in a rare moment of panic, completely lost his composure, "Nora, what in the name of flying pancakes are you doing? Get off our guest this instant!"

"He doesn't give one shit about me, does he," A flattened, groaning Yang muttered under her breath as she shoved unsuccessfully at the weight behind her back, "Get off me, dammit! It hurts!"

"But I'm just so happy that Ruby's eating with us!" Nora exclaimed cheerfully, "Besides, I've been holding back for so long and I can't even sneak a snack and I was just so hungry that that I absolutely needed to do something  _crazy!_  And so I thought, why don't I welcome our new friend with my super epic uber awesome Dive of the Vikingress! Wait, is Vikingress an actual word?  _Screw it!_ "

"Get. The hell.  _Off,_ " Yang growled menacingly, "And you Da, stop grinning at the sideline and bloody help us already!"

"Us? I only see you though," Taiyang said mildly, "If you're talking about Ruby, she's standing right behind you. I'm constantly amazed at how oblivious you are, daughter."

"Wha –? Ruby!" It was only then that Yang realized that the young girl had somehow slipped away just before Nora had crashed down on them, and right now she was scratching her head with an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry," she said meekly, "My instincts took over."

Yang could only screech, "You  _traitor!_ "

"Enough. Nora, you can get up now, we shouldn't delay in preparing dinner just for that stupid daughter of mine, now, should we?" Taiyang began walking towards the left hallway without even bothering to react towards Yang's murderous glare, "Ren, I trust you to oversee the kitchen as usual?"

"Yes, Master," Lie Ren bowed respectfully at the retreating figure before taking after the man. Then he turned back suddenly with a sigh before pulling Nora by the arm and said, "C'mon Nora, you heard what Master Taiyang said. The faster we get the food ready, the faster we get to eat."

"Okay!" The hyperactive woman finally let herself be pulled into an upright position before following right behind Lie Ren. Ruby found herself unable to fathom the relationship the Xiao Long family shared. Even now she couldn't fathom whether Yang is in good terms with her father, or they hate each other's guts. Neither seemed like the right answer. Speaking of which, did Ren really just said 'flying pancakes'?

Yang huffed to herself irritably as she stood up and patted away at her butt, "I swear, someday I'll leave this bloody house and be free of this nonsense. And you! How dare you escape! If I die we die together! That's what friends are for right?"

"Hahaha, I think that's slightly different than the notion of 'friend' I had in mind," Ruby laughed deadpanning, "Also, I'd rather be a traitor than to be squashed under Nora. Sorry not sorry."

"That is not how you apologize!  _Arghh!_ " Yang literally exploded in angry flames as her eyes colored over completely into vivid red. At the beginning it had been slightly alarming, but now it was like watching a life-sized firework.  _So cool!_

"Well, shall we go… somewhere until they call us for dinner?" Ruby pretended she hadn't heard the blonde's outburst and exited the room. Yang caught up with her with an annoyed sigh,

"Haah… fine, I guess I'll tour you around the house a little. This should've been Ren's job, dammit." Yang finally gave up on bursting her own artery. Then, she remembered something, "Hey, Ruby? You're talking about this Lost Altar's location, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"I didn't see him pass anything to you. Are you going to collect them after dinner? Or did he send it to your scroll?"

"What are you talking about? He already gave me the information," Ruby answered with a questioning mark on her face, but Yang looked even more confused than her,

"Huh? When? I don't remember the old fool giving you anything at all! Not even verbal hints!"

"Ah," Ruby suddenly realized what Yang was talking about, "I see what you mean. Actually, he just –"

Suddenly Ruby stopped talking, and her face was scrunched up in a weird frown as if listening to something, even though there was no one around. After a good ten seconds she finally glanced at the now utterly confounded Yang before apologizing, "Sorry Yang, I can't tell you. It's best if you just forget about this."

"Wha – You can't just leave me hanging like that! Why the sudden change of mind?"

"Let's just say that I'd like to avoid trouble," Ruby patted a hand onto her friend's back sympathetically, a sentiment which the blonde woman seemed completely unable to share right now, "And I have been given warning not to actively seek for them. That is an advice that I am inclined to listen."

Yang growled menacingly as she attained sudden enlightenment, and it was then Ruby realized that she really, really, really needed to start lying better in the future. Or at the very least, learn how to sew her own mouth completely shut when the time called, "Oh.  _Oh._  It's that old fool again, isn't it? I don't know how he did it but I  _knew_  he did it and you sure as hell don't need to listen to him, like, he's the shameless pervert who almost  _slept_  with your master! C'mon, big sis!"

"… You're just as bad as your father…"

It would seem that even if she doesn't try to find trouble, trouble just wouldn't stop finding her. For the rest of their little tour, Ruby could only listen with a grimace to the woman's non-stop complaints until finally, Lie Ren came to her rescue.

  
  



	3. Night of Partners, Infinite Regrets

Shortly after dinner, the young girl was led by one of the servants to her bedroom facing southwards away from the sun. Since it also came with an absolutely luxurious bathroom, the girl spent a great deal of time melting herself in the warm waters of a silver bathtub ("Not fair! I bet their  _own_  bathtub is made out of gold!") before finally emerging an hour later. As she put on her usual clothes and clipped her favorite red cloak back to her shoulders, Ruby decided to take a spin around the humongous room and indulge herself some relaxing observation.

As expected, the Eastern style bedroom was decorated with various ornaments, trinkets and furniture that were arranged in an odd pattern called fengshui that many Easterners practiced. In her case she learned about them on a trip by sea, where a surprising amount of sailors would practice a variety of superstitious stuff in their daily life, believing that they would protect them from the dangers of the sea. Being a survivalist Ruby saw no reason to dispute them, although she personally believed that the steel in her hands was all the protection she needed to face the world.

Just like literally every room or hallway she had walked by, Paintings of all kind littered the walls in organized rows, with the themes mostly revolving around nature, human life and philosophy. Ruby imagined it not too surprising if some of these were painted by the man himself, but unfortunately she shared no taste in art and passed by them with a curious but very brief glance. On the other hand, the one thing that drew her attention was the small fountain sculptured in the shape of a rocky waterfall placed neatly at the far corner of her bed. The servant had told her that she could turn them off with a switch if she found the water sound too be too distracting, but contrary to their expectations this was exactly what the girl wanted to have by her side. Ruby was used to sleeping out in the open during her time as an Executioner, and more often than not she would have to travel deep into the untamed lands of Remnant to hunt for Demons. As such, she very much disliked confined space where her large scythe became a crutch, and she could not fight at the absolute peak of her abilities. While the guest room she's currently staying in was very big, Ruby couldn't quite shake off the feeling that she was being confined somehow. Therefore the fountain was a very welcomed decoration that would help the illusion that she was asleep in the wilderness.

Of course, when she was at True North she slept under a roof like any non-suicidal person would do. But she loved that life only because her Master made it felt like home, and now that she was gone...

_Tok tok tok._

Ruby frowned. She had hoped that the two presences lying in wait outside for the past thirty minutes would go away, but obviously her wish was not be granted. With a gentle slap on Crescent Rose the former Executioner steeled herself and went to open the door. She saw with no surprise at all a respectful Lie Ren and cheerful Nora Valkyrie, seeking her attention at this late hour for god knows what.

"Hi guys," The brunette started with a friendly smile, "I didn't expect to see you so quickly. What is it?"

"Hiya Ruby! It's nothing really, we're just here to invite you to the grounds and BREAK –"

"What she means is that we'd like to invite you to a spar," Ren quickly interjected before realizing that he might have been too direct, "It's just that the night is still young, and Yang had a lot to say about your prowess in battle. This may sound a little sudden, but it would be our greatest honor if you would grant us a practice match... if it does not impede on your time of course."

Ruby was surprised. Setting Nora aside, Ren did not look like the type who would actively seek out conflict at all. While she personally had wanted to work up some sweat after her bath, she suspected there might be more to this unusual invitation than meets the eye. In the past she would've rejected the request outright, before leaving without leaving right away suspecting foul play. But she had changed since then, and the mismatched duo did seem very sincere.

"You do know that I've just finished bathing, don't you?"

"I see. My greatest apologies, we shall take our l –"

"Don't be so hasty! You do notice I'm in my traveling wear, don't you? I was planning to practice a bit anyway, so a duel is no problem."

"Hurray! See, Ren? I told you it'll be alright!" Nora smacked heartily onto the young man's back, causing a grimace as he glared evilly at the remorseless woman. But he quickly turned back to Ruby with a respectful bow and said,

"Thank you, Miss Ruby. We shall guide you to the training ground then."

"Before that," Ruby stopped the puzzled duo before they could start moving, "Could you just call me Ruby? Master Taiyang aside, you guys are the same age as Yang, so having you address me as Miss Ruby is kinda… weird."

"Of course," Lie Ren replied quickly, "With your permission, Miss – I mean, Ruby."

Immediately Nora repeated her name like she had said it her entire life, "Ruby! Ruby Ruby Ruby  _Ruby!_ "

" _Nora!_ "

It's funny how the same word could have a different effect when said by different people. One said her name like it was carved out of dragon bones, while the other rolled it over her tongue like an exciting new toy. Ruby could only smile wryly at their antics as the party finally departed for their destination.

* * *

To Ruby's surprise, Taiyang was waiting for them when they arrived at the training grounds. If he was the real perpetrator behind this invitation, then why hadn't he just said so during dinner? Maybe he wanted to try his hand as well! Immediately a shiver of involuntary excitement shot down her spine as she imagined dueling one of the strongest Huntsmen in the entire Remnant, even though she knew it to be was very unlikely. Deep in her own imagination, she nearly ran into the old man before she stopped abruptly at the final second. The young girl muttered a sheepish apology at the smiling old man, before looking around for a certain blonde woman who would not miss this for the world. But to her disbelief, Yang Xiao Long was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Yang?" Ruby inquired Taiyang.

"She skipped work this morning, so she's making up for it." the old man snorted at the thought, and Ruby could easily see in her head the blonde screaming and thrashing the whole place up right now. In fact, she was surprised she hadn't burned down the house already.

"The mansion's fire proof," Taiyang read her thoughts apparently, "And while my daughter's lazy to a fault, she can work very well when leashed properly. If only she is more responsible…"

Ruby wondered if he meant the leash part literally, but was wise enough to snuff the thought in its basket. Wasting no more time, the former Executioner began analyzing the battleground for the upcoming fight. First, the training ground was a flattened four hundred meters wide square outlined with white paint. The four corners of the zone were marked with a metal post each, and she guessed from past experience that they were conductors of sorts that would form an impenetrable energy barrier around the training ground. The one that made her worry though were the many strange, indecipherable round markings the size of a football littered all over the ground with no intelligible pattern whatsoever. After some hesitation, Ruby decided to ask,

"Master Taiyang, what are those markings on the ground?"

Taiyang answered enigmatically with a hint of humor, "That is a good question, Ruby. However, I would prefer not to tell you what they are now, if only to allow my Guardians to have the slimmest of chance to stand against you. I'm sure it will be an educative experience for you too."

 _In other words, traps._  Ruby had never walked into a live minefield, and it was ironic that her first experience was of the voluntary kind. At least she didn't need to worry that they're lethal!… probably. Ruby sighed even as she pulled out Crescent Rose from behind her waist and stepped determinedly into the ring. At the opposite side, Nora and Ren had just finished their warm-ups and was looking towards her with a most serious expression on their faces.  _It's been a while since I fought a Huntsmen team. Well, half a team, but still, this should be fun._

As she strode up to them, Ruby took the time to observe closely her sparring partners – no, that mindset won't do; they are her  _enemies –_ The first thing she paid attention to were the weapons. She didn't exactly had the best viewing angle during their first meeting. Lie Ren had a standard-sized pistol of leaf green on each hand, with a single curved blade extending down the lower end of the muzzle. They looked to be feather light, effective on all range, and generally an all-rounder kind of weapon. Nora's on the other hand, was the exact opposite. The war hammer slung lazily over her shoulder was easily three times the size of her head, and this time she was definitely sure that its alternate form was a bloody grenade launcher. That thing would break a lot more than just knees, and if she was not careful she could be squashed into a paste. Ruby had zero intention of reliving her three months bedridden experience again, and this time she wouldn't have a genius healer to quicken the process. All in all, Ren and Nora were an odd pair of Huntsmen of completely opposite spectrum, but if they work well together then this little spar might turn out much better than she originally thought.

Just shy of ten feet away from the duo, Ruby stopped her advance and held her crimson rifle loosely with one hand. Despite her casual mannerism, the duo seemed to sense something and immediately spread out into cautious stances just shy out of her field of view.  _Very good spacing._  The young girl chose not to take the initiative. The duel would end far too quickly otherwise, and she hadn't forgotten Yang's forlorn face when she seckilled her this afternoon.  _A spar should be beneficial to both parties._  Exhaling a calm breath of air, Ruby took a single step forwards and uttered,

"Fight me."

The timing was perfect. A quarter of a second before she finished her last word, a green blur cleared the ten feet distance instantly to sweep a murderous dagger across Ruby's throat. The young girl nodded approvingly in her head as she nimbly angled her neck to dodge by a hair's breadth, before letting her legs to run her out of the Huntsman's range. Fearless, the deadly blades chased after Ruby's elusive figure like the claws of a vicious animal as they cut and snarl and bite at even the tiniest of opening. In fact, his offense was so unpredictable and unexpected that for a while, Ruby couldn't mount a counter attack at all!

But Ren was not the real threat. Within seconds of their engagement, the clanking, screeching sounds of metal informed Ruby that Nora Valkyrie had switched her war hammer into a different form; a form of threat that she could not see coming because she had to devote all her eyesight to the fighter before her. With Ren constantly blocking in front of her no matter how she tried to maneuver, and the usually noisy Nora sneaking impossibly silent steps to flank her from behind, Ruby felt a sense of danger she almost never experienced against Huntsmen way below her level. They don't just work well with each other, it's like they're two parts of a body! Ruby thought she knew what the woman was going to do, but just before she could dismiss it as too outlandish two loud booms shattered the sound barrier and her disbelief to push her senses into overdrive.  _Is she insane? At this distance she'll hit Ren as well!_

But Ren was nowhere as fazed as Ruby thought he should be. Kicking out three times in rapid succession at her face, chest and hips respectively, Ren staggered her with his speed and used the knock-back to leap gracefully like a swan out of harm's way. His moves were so fluid, so natural that it's as if he had been shot by explosives his entire life, and considering his partner's nature that might actually be true. Running on a head of pure coolness, Ruby hurled herself sideways just in time to avoid getting exploded by the pair of lethal pink balls. The massive shockwave however still sent her rolling over the floor like a ball before she pushed herself up with a forceful stretch of limbs, narrowly avoiding a stealthy stab to the stomach. Excitement and adrenaline flooded through her veins, and try as she might Ruby could not hold back a delightful grin any longer. This was but the opening act and already the duo far exceeded her expectations. Perhaps if given the chance Yang might be able to give her the same wonderment, but deep down Ruby knew that even at her best, even if Yang might surpass them both individually, she would never be able to give her a better thrill than this golden combi did.

But enough sentiment, this was a time of decisions and action. Wanting to change the tide, Ruby zigzagged sideways like lightning before she abruptly took to the heavens with a single  _whump,_  red cloak streaking fifty feet across the night sky before she whispered to herself, "Here I come!" In a split second, she pulled the trigger seven times in a rapid succession to send an equal amount of bullets hailing down onto Ren and Nora, and so rapid was the discharge that the gunfire sounded like a drawn out, melodious thunder. Bear in mind that her rifle was completely manual, and still this remained as one of her favorite move if only for its sheer difficulty. As expected though, accuracy was traded off for inhuman speed and only five out of seven shots had a real chance of hitting the target. Usually that was enough to drop her opponents in a splatter of blood.

Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie thwarted them all. Caught off guard and in awe of the bulky rifle's stunning performance, they nevertheless weaved through the hail as Nora even attempted in failure to slam some of the bullets back towards at her. Ruby eyes darted left and right to catch two such return serves sailing past a few feet away, and thought that the crazy woman might be able to hit on target given a year or two. By now gravity had finally caught up with the red dressed girl, and a flash of inspiration caused her to curve her arms perpendicularly away from her body. As Ruby spun once, twice, then grow faster and faster until she was all but a deadly tornado of steel, the girl dove right towards the duo like an unstoppable crusher. If they couldn't get away from this, then this was the end. Even while holding back the sheer destructive power of this move was enough to blow a small pit in the ground.

But her worries were unfounded. Not only the duo perfectly measured her attack radius and skipped out of the way, they had also took the chance to close in the moment she struck the ground with terrific impact, hoping to defeat her while she was still recovering from the execution move. Had Ruby been one year younger, had she not practiced many high level maneuvers the past month to get her fighting sense to speed, they might have forced out her Semblance then. However, Ruby's body was now strong enough to handle the absurd stress, and after spending just half a second to regain her bearings Ruby immediately swung the body of her rifle fluidly with sinister quickness at Ren's head. The surprised young man skidded along the floor as he held up his twin pistols to absorb the blow, but he was doubly surprised to find it as heavy as Nora's swing as he was blown backwards in a most ungraceful fall. By then Nora had run up to cover for Ren and with a most vicious grin, swung the gigantic hammer directly at Ruby's torso. Time stopped for Ruby as she admired the invisible wall of pressure that threatened to blow her away before the hammer had even reached.  _This rivals the presence of a Rank C Demon. Not bad at all, Nora!_  Then, she struck back. Never had Nora been more surprised in her life to find Ruby meeting her head on by thrusting her rifle directly at the incoming hammer. Even more unbelievable was that when the dust settled, and Nora thought she had accidentally squashed Ruby into a grizzly mess, she found the young girl to be perfectly fine and her blow stopped perfectly in mid-air. Ruby whispered provocatively at the stunned Huntress, "Hmm, is that all you've got?"

As the thinker of the team, Ren realized almost instantly her ploy and shouted out, "Nora don't!" His desperate warning however was too late as the woman flew into a flying rage and began swinging like a madman. Each one of her hits was powerful enough to squish five times the weight of Ruby Rose, and yet despite throwing everything she has at the smirking little girl Nora simply could not break through Ruby's impenetrable defense. The more she grew frustrated, the worse it got until finally, for the first in a very long time, Nora's arms grew too tired and wavered for an instant. That was all the opening Ruby needed to dive deep into her embrace, wink, and slam the butt end of her rifle directly at her chin. The berserker fainted unceremoniously towards the ground, and that was one down, one more to go.

Ruby turned around to look at Ren with doe eyes, and was rewarded immensely by an obvious shiver down the young man's spine. She knew that he knew how she repelled Nora's powerful strikes as if she was equal to Nora's strength. It was all just technique. She twisted her entire body to focus all the force into a single point, then she met Nora's blows halfway before the woman could perform a full swing, thus negating a majority of her explosive strength before it got a chance to blossom. The provocation was simply to guarantee Nora does not realize her trick, and after that it was just performing the same maneuver over and over again, sometimes even using the counter force to bolster her own until the woman runs out of juice.

"Why don't you use the traps? In fact, why haven't you used it earlier? You could've taken me by surprise." Ruby said with a smile as she walked slowly towards Ren, even purposely stepping over some trap markings with all the arrogance of a tyrannous queen. But Ren didn't panic. He simply fell back into his usual stance and said,

"Less talk. More fighting."

Ruby laughed gaily, her blood pumped full with adrenaline and pleasure, "Ahaha! Alright then Ren, give it all you've got!"

Chains of ethereal glowing white materialized into existence, and once again Ren had acted before she could finish her sentences. The young man may be polite, but he sure as hell didn't mind playing dirty. Hundreds of Dust-formed chains erupted from all around her like dangerous serpents of the sea, but not only Ruby was utterly unmoved she could not help but feel a tiny twinge of disappointment. Spikes, bombs, ethereal minions; those were the level of threat she was hoping she could fight.  _Binds,_  she thought secretly with no small amount of derision,  _really? I run rings around these things since five!_ The slithering masses of white sailed at once towards her like spears with such explosive speed most Huntsman would find themselves captured before they could move a muscle. But not Ruby Rose, the fastest Executioner in the world. Once again the world seemed to slow as she took the time to count the number of binds coming at her, then fired at every one of them with a Dust bullet from her rifle.  _Is this it?_  Again she thought with no small amount of disappointment,  _I was hoping for something –_

Abruptly Ruby realized she had been fooled far too late. The Dust bullets dissolved into nothingness the moment they made contact with the chains, and by the time she recovered from her shock she found herself pulled to the ground in a painful crash.  _Did it just absorb my bullets!?_  Within seconds her entire body became completely enveloped by the white bindings, and even Crescent Rose was no exception even though she managed to keep a firm grip on the handle. Not that it was much help now, as she tried to fire a few more shots and found even the Dust cartridge to be absorbed by the trap. Ruby berated herself mentally for letting arrogance getting into her head; if Ren followed up with a quick dagger now then she had no choice but to –

But no. As she had predicted the young man had skidded to a halt just barely out of the corner of her eyes, but what really surprised her was that she noticed Ren was barehanded when he made the dash with his right arm arced backwards as if he was ready to deliver a punch. But why? Why purposely put his daggers away when it easily could've dealt equal, if not more damage?  _Wait a minute, if I remember correctly Yang said –_

* * *

Abruptly, Lie Ren's view turned completely red, and for a moment he thought that the former Executioner had perhaps cut his eyes. But he didn't feel any pain, and soon he realized with a start that it was a sea of little red things scattering all over the sky. Mesmerized, the young man reached out towards the closest clump and snatched a small piece of it in his hands.  _Are these… petals?_

Abruptly he felt a bump at the back of his head, and the young man quickly spun around to see Ruby Rose smiling widely with her wicked red rifle pointed towards him, "Checkmate. That was a really, really good surprise at the end though. I can't believe you actually forced out my Semblance! Well played!"

"We lost," Lie Ren said mildly in a vain attempt to mask the unexpected afterglow that had his whole body shivering in excitement. Short and one-sided it may be, it was still the greatest and most thrilling battle he had ever experienced in his life, "Thank you, Miss, I mean, Ruby, it is a great honor to fight you."

"Ahaha! The same goes here, Ren! Be sure to tell Nora my regards when she wakes up later!" Ruby laughed happily as she holstered her rifle, with Taiyang arriving right on cue before asking with a cool smile, "So, Ruby. Did you enjoy the fight?"

"Yeah, totally! Nora and Ren are awesome!" the young girl didn't notice his cheeks reddening a little at the heartfelt praise, "There are some kinks here and there and their recovery time could use more practice, but they're practically good enough to compete in tournaments already! Speaking of which, why haven't I seen them on TV?"

"Ah, that will be my fault," Taiyang said with a remorseful look, "I rely on them to perform various responsibilities, and hence there really isn't time to register them into anything major."

"Huh. Can't you have older subordinates to do the work instead? Feels like a waste of talent."

Taiyang laughed heartily, "Besides me, Yang, Ren and Nora are the figureheads of the Xiao Long family. Of course I can delegate their work to someone else for a while, but ultimately they are the ones our men place great trust and expectations upon, so it's impossible to have them focus on practice for an upcoming tournament. Still," Taiyang stroked his beard with a thoughtful look, "You have a point. They are young, and I shan't squander their bright future on petty criminal activities, eh?"

"Oh c'mon, I didn't mean that! You're doing this on purpose!" Ruby turned red in the face, and before the old man could tease her any longer she called for a tactical retreat, "Anyway, I'm all sweaty from the exercise so I'm going back to my room for another bath. See you guys tomorrow!"

And just like that, the young girl zoomed away like an arrow before vanishing around a corner. That she had ran faster than any moment during the duel was both a source of great admiration and exasperation for Lie Ren – if she went at them seriously they might've been taken down without realizing it. She hadn't even used her rifle's second form. Just how much was she holding back?

"So, Ren. Was this fight satisfying for you?" Taiyang addressed the young man kindly as Ren quickly bowed his head and answered,

"Yes, Master. This has been most educative experience. I can't believe she's just fifteen years old."

"She's an Executioner, after all. They have no choice but to be the best. Especially since she's Summer's daughter…" the light in Taiyang's eyes grew dim with remembrance, but he soon recovered, "At any rate, let's talk about your test. Did you manage to connect the final palm strike?"

Ren stiffened at the question. This has been the sole reason he had sought out Ruby Rose for a duel. Master Taiyang, for whatever reason, had suddenly declared a 'test' for him to land a Qi Strike onto Ruby Rose, and that he was also allowed to bring Nora along and use the training field. He was uncomfortable with the notion from the start because he knew exactly how destructive that technique was, and even after seeing a glimpse of Ruby Rose's true strength he still would prefer not to use it against a human being. But the Master's orders are absolute, and in the end it had turned out for the better, "I… believe so. The strike was shallow, but it definitely connected an instant before she used her Semblance."

The conversation stopped right then. For a long while Master Taiyang said nothing at all, and he continued to stare blankly at Ren with a weird glow in his eyes that disturbed the young man to no end. No words could describe his relief when Taiyang finally spoke again, "Hahahaha! That's good. It was a very impressive setup you have by using Ruby's confidence against her, and although I have to deduct points for your failure to stop Nora from rampaging – don't show me that face, she is your partner and hence your responsibility – I suppose that you passed. Now, go get some rest. I should get back to my room too, lest that useless daughter of mine starts burning important documents out of frustration."

Taiyang gave the young man an amiable pat in the head, and Ren sighed with secret relief that his Master, his foster father was acting the same as usual. But before he could excuse himself Taiyang spoke up again,

"Speaking of which, I'd like to see you and Nora at the gathering hall eleven a.m. sharp tomorrow. Try to keep the girl from oversleeping again, eh? This is very important."

"Of course, Master. Have a good night."

"You too, Ren," he thought he heard an odd hint of sadness in the Master's words, "Good night."

And just like that he was gone like the wind, leaving Lie Ren pondering with no small amount of strange doubt and anxiety as Nora snored away at the side in peaceful obliviousness.

* * *

It was ten in the morning, and Ruby Rose already had her backpack slung to her shoulders with one final look at the room to make sure she didn't forget anything. The night had gone by surprisingly restful, the breakfast was nice, and even Nora's grumpiness because she was 'beaten by a little girl' could not put a dent in her mood. Had the woman seen her fight seriously, she would know that there's no shame in losing at all to a Exe –  _I should stop calling myself that; it'll bring back unpleasant habits_  – mercenary who could seckill a Demon. Once everything she made sure everything was in place, the young girl exited her room, said her goodbyes to her hosts, and headed straight towards the front gate. No need to spoil the day with a sauna of stink.

Not to her surprise, she saw Yang Xiao Long leaning against a wall at the gate waiting for her, her magnificent golden hair swaying softly along the wind. She wasn't around during breakfast or when she made her final rounds, but despite limited contact Ruby thought that Yang wasn't the type to see an acquaintance off from the shadows. The blonde woman gave her a hand wave before beckoning her over, and Ruby strode right up to the blonde with an easy smile, "Good morning. You didn't show for breakfast."

At that the blonde sighed while looking like she was going to curl up and cry, "It's all because of that  _monster_. I had to work all night – all night! – until 5 in the morning before I finally got into bed. Doesn't he know that a lady needs her beauty sleep? What if I lose hair!?"

"Hmm… that's never been a problem for me, but I get what you mean." Ruby normally operated on a 4 hours bi-cycle or a 2 hours quarterly-cycle depending on her needs, and if she was on the hunt she could work 48 hours straight with only 2 hours of sleep. But of course, unlike her most people could not alter their sleeping habits on a whim.

Not wanting to dwell on the subject any further, Yang looked up towards the blue sky and asked mildly, "So, where are you going next?"

"I can't tell you the specifics, but North is where I'm headed. It will be unfamiliar territory, but I guess there's always the chance the land might be tame." Ruby looked up towards Yang with an expectant look on her face, but when the blonde simply stared blankly at her she sighed and said with slight dejection, "It's a joke. Remnant is never tame."

"Oh. Uh, okay." Deciding that the brunette could use some help to defuse the terrible joke, Yang pondered for a good subject, "Say, tell me a little about your life on the road. It must be cool eh, travelling to many places and see all sorts of things? Speaking of which, how many towns have you visited? Fifty? A hundred?"

Ruby hummed for a bit before she answered slowly, "I guess it's just okay? Most of the time I just think about surviving another day, and paying attention to the stuff that'll keep me alive is often more important than just sightseeing. Also, you might be surprised but I haven't traveled to many settlements at all. I visit them only to refill my Dust supply, and sometimes tinker a little with my weapon."

"That sounds like a bore."

"Well, I said before that my life's goal is to hunt down Demons, right? While those things do sometimes appear at populated areas, they're usually weak and quickly rooted out by The Order. It's just not worth risking capture to take down the small fries," the brunette's eyes threw a sharp glint for an instant, "Not to mention that after a whole year of tracking, I've finally found my target, so I really can't afford to waste time on pointless stuff. For now I have other things that I must do, but when I'm done with that…"

The determination on Ruby's face said everything. For a while Yang watched the young girl with a strange longing welling inside her heart, but she quickly dispelled it and laughed a little too loud than usual,

"Well, I'm sure you'll be fine, big sis. You are crazy strong after all; I doubt there are many things in this world that can stop you."

Ruby shook her head, "Not really, I'm not as strong as you think. You won't believe how –" Ruby paused upon nothing Yang's unusually downcast expression, and suddenly she realized what this was all about, "Hey, you… watched my duel last night, didn't you?"

The corner of Yang's lips pulled up a little as she admitted freely, "Yeah. Would you believe that Da's computer had access to the security cameras? All this time and he never told me, the old coot!" the blonde woman clenched her fists so tight that her skin faded into white, "It was a good thing that he did, though. Otherwise, I would never realize how big this world truly is. Just the distance between you and me is like standing at the opposite ends of Remnant."

Ruby bit her lips, not really knowing what to say to comfort her, "Yang… if it makes you feel better, I wouldn't have chosen a life like this. If I have a dream, it will be to live in a small house, go to school, make friends, get a dog," her eyes betrayed a hint of pain as she whispered the last words as if it was her heartfelt wish, "Spend more time with my family."

The blonde chuckled a little and tried patting Ruby's head, whom ducked out of the way like lightning because she hated getting her hair ruffled,

"That's not a bad dream at all, Ruby. Don't give up just yet. But you see, that's exactly why we're so different from each other. Me, I've always been a family girl, and like my Da I've watched over my family and my clan for as far as I can remember. I got their back and they got mine, and together we can be anything else we want in this world!"

The girl pumped a fist into the air like some superhero in a movie, but she then let it fall slowly to the ground with an terribly weak smile,

"But, hmm, how should I put this. Maybe I'm being selfish, but I guess sometimes, I just wish there is more of 'me' than there is 'us', you know? Would you believe me if I tell you that I've never left this city? I'm the daughter of a hero, and heir to the biggest criminal organization of this city. I can't leave. There's always more stuff to do, more backs to watch over from harm. At least we're tight enough that there's never been a case of backstabbing within the family, but really... there's no freedom to be found here. Whatever the family says, I follow, even if it takes something important from me; even if it goes against what's right. It's tiring. I'm really tired of this. I… I guess that sometimes, I just wish I wasn't here."

A gust of wind blew by, whiffing up mini dust storms on the pavement no one noticed nor cared. Ruby kept quiet, for this was beyond any kind words or pretty advice she could offer. In the larger scale of things, perhaps their predicament was exactly the same as these dust storms. Small, insignificant, ignorable.

Unless they cared to change it themselves.

"… Say, is traveling really all that fun? I've heard some great things from wandering peddlers, even though most of them are straight up bullshit." Yang started suddenly. The change of subject was welcomed by Ruby as she answered,

"That's because a trader's a liar no matter where they go or what title they call themselves. Peddler?  _Pssh_ ," Ruby flicked a finger as if she was throwing something dirty, "Also, I never really thought about it, but it probably is not 'fun'. To begin with I have to avoid people because of my old job, so I only travel by foot. That means a lot of walking, climbing, swimming, and dealing with all sorts of things trying to eat me alive in ever creative ways, and the worst of them all are bugs. I swear they're more dangerous than the Grimm, and in fact there are days I want to burn the whole forest –"

"Uhhh, yeah, I think that's more than I want to hear for now," Yang interrupted her before the young girl shattered her dreams of glorious adventure completely, "What I want to ask is, um, do you think I could've made the cut?... You know, running out about Remnant and seeing new things… maybe even travel together with you."

Ruby's eyes widened at the final statement as she stared directly at Yang, the latter's pretend smile fooling no one. It wasn't even a real question. Yang was not going to leave Jiu Xu. Just like her, for the sake of her beliefs, the woman had made up her mind long ago to remain in this huge, yet tiny world for as long as she was needed. Playing the what-if game would only deepen the wound and change nothing.

And yet… and yet Yang wanted to know. She had asked for her help. If Yang trusted her this much to reveal something so close to her heart, then at the very least she was obligated to try.

"This is all conjecture of course," Ruby averted her eyes and looked away, unable to meet the blonde face-to-face, "You're plenty tough despite what you think, so I don't think you'll have a problem once you get used to fighting outside. But you're new so you're going to make plenty of stupid mistakes, possibly irredeemable ones. Your hair and attire are a problem too, since those… assets will stick out even in the middle of the thickest crowd. Way too much attention in my opinion, and visibility's definitely something I don't need in my travels."

"I… see," Yang drooped her head to the ground and kicked at a random small pebble by her feet. It didn't fly far, "I... guess I'm not good enough then. Never –"

"But!" Ruby interjected suddenly, freezing the woman with her sudden outburst. It was unbelievably difficult, but Ruby looked up at Yang with face of determination and a heartfelt smile, "Who doesn't make mistakes when they try something new? A new environment is just a different playground, so as long as you endure there's no reason you can't take on the wilderness. Speaking of visibility, maybe you can try getting a haircut –" "I will kill anyone who dares hurt my hair." "… Or we can just use you the way you are. You're charming and charismatic, so it should be easy to get what you want from other people, especially those greedy 'peddlers'.

So, yeah. If you really want to tag along with me... I don't think I'll mind. I'll be happy to have you."

Yang stood frozen like a statue for a second, then another. A strong wind swept past their cheeks, and finally the blonde woman snapped out of her reverie. She then broke out into the brightest smile Ruby had ever seen in her life.

"Thank you, Ruby. Even if those dreams will never come true, I – thank you.  _Thank you._ "

Ruby turned towards the gate. She pretended that she didn't hear the muffled sobs as Yang turned away to hide her face and trembled uncontrollably. Taking a peek at a nearby clock post and noting that it was time, Ruby strode for the streets and didn't look back.

"Don't mention it… Goodbye."

  
  



	4. Calm Before The Storm

This is it. This was likely the last time she was ever going to see her 'big sis' again. In a sense, she might even said that Ruby was her last shot at freedom to live a life she chose for herself, now gone forever. The petite girl's appearance was a tiny and insignificant ripple in the vast sea of people that was Jiu Xu, but to her, she had without a doubt triggered a desperate longing she thought she had forgotten a long time ago. Like a hook the nagging feeling would clung onto her heart regardless of how much she wanted to forget it, and only the passage of time would help diminish all the emotions and memories regardless of her will. The stark realization only made her unhappier.

So Yang Xiao Long stormed her way towards the training grounds, thinking to work off some stress by punching a few of her underlings in the guts, only to recall the duel from yesterday and the fact that she wasn'tpart of it and got pissed even harder. Abruptly the blonde skidded 180 degrees to head towards her room, deciding that this was the she would do nothing brood in solitary and silent rage as she always did until all the terrible feelings in her body eventually worked its way out of the system. Of course, that usually took days or until Da dragged her out to the grounds and smack her senseless, and honestly now that she's seventeen she would really like to avoid getting her ass spanked in public but seriously fuck. Them.  _All!_

It was with those thoughts that she stomped through the mansion like a bull. Those terrible sentiments would last five seconds before she overheard a pair of servants whispering right around the corner before her bedroom.

"Hey Da Yin, did you hear about the news? One of our guys got killed again this morning!"

"What, again?  _Yao mou gao cho ar_  (Are you sure)? The fuck is going on with this city?"

"No bombs this time, but apparently the poor guy was shot right through the head! Luckily, everyone's already on edge since that bombing a few weeks ago so they got out real quick."

"Man that's cra –"

"Hey."

The two chatting servants turned around to see their mistress looming over them with bloody red eyes and simmering gold flickering about her hair like wild fire. Yang grabbed hold of the chatty man's collar – Fu Xing, was it? Well his stars today was anything but lucky alright – and very nearly snarled flames from her mouth,

_"Where did you hear this? Tell me now!"_

* * *

Yang took a peek around from beneath a manhole, saw no one and deftly climbed herself out of the stinking place. While the location of the incident wasn't so far that it warranted the use of the sewers, it was the fastest way to get there without alerting anyone within the vicinity. She just couldn't be bothered to deal with the cops and curious bystanders that must be swarming the circumference like ants right now.

The attacked hideout was one of a thousand old apartments at the Baosheng district struck by earthquake many years ago. Since then this area had been slowly rebuilt to its former glory, but since this unfortunate apartment was built away from the popular streets with its entrance facing a cesspool no less, no one could be bothered to renovate a building that had zero investment value. On the other hand, this became the perfect gathering place for delinquents, drug addicts, homeless, prostitutes, scavengers and in general the 'scum' of the society. It was a lawless criminal's heaven, until one year ago the Xiao Long clan bought the property with a dummy company and set up a hideout at the top level of the apartment. While they did not forbid the lawless from using the apartment, anyone who frequented here were mandated to follow their set of rules, and whoever broke them would suffer misfortunes ranging from broken legs to feeding germs in the shit pool. For a while time had passed peacefully, and nobody expected anything short of another earthquake to shake up their lives again.

But today, something extraordinary happened. Today someone was killed in this building on broad daylight, and not just anyone who could be missed with a careless thought. Today, a faithful, loyal retainer of the Xiao Long family was murdered for a reason yet no one could fathom, and whoever this son of a bitch who dared laid their filthy hands on her territory and her men was going to burn alive until she got some real answers out of them, and then some more. Yang carefully lidded the simmering fury in check as she glanced with furrowed eyebrows at the yellow tapings wrapped over the back entrances, before opting to slip through a smaller but open window hidden just behind a tall bush. Just in case, Yang rolled through her clips to make sure gauntlets were fully loaded and zigzagged her way towards the decrepit building. The culprit should've been long gone by now, but if they were around she did not want then to get an easy shot at her.

Yang saw no one as she ascended the first few floors of the building, though it as she'd expected. Despite the police force's incompetency their taping skills remained as sharp as ever, and no criminal in their right mind would come back to the place where a Yang clan member had been openly shot and killed unless they wanted to start a war.  _Although in that case at least I have a target to rip apart._ The blonde gritted her teeth and decided to focus on the present. One more floor and she would arrive at the crime scene, and Yang's stomach lurched uneasily even though she knew the body would've been gone and moved to the morgue by now. The blonde woman has never been comfortable dealing with death itself, be it family or friends or strangers or even enemies. There was a reason why she chose to handcraft a customized battle gauntlet instead of something more lethal. She could do just as much stupid violence with two fists, but she would also be more sensitive to the damage she wrought and know exactly when to stop. Not to mention that she had enough of  _that one's_  lecture in the past to turn even the most psychotic murderer into a vegan priest.

However, she wasn't averse to excessive violence as long as it's non-lethal, especially against a potential maniac who had taken away many lives from her city. It was with such mix of resolve and doubt that she climbed the final fifth floor, hoping against hope that the murderer might be stupid enough to come back –

"Freeze."

Yang froze, but it was neither out of fear nor surprise. She was trying to make sense of the familiar voice when her mind finally clicked together. Slowly, the blonde woman turned with a vicious grin to face the open room at her left, and there stood an inspector she knew most intimately in an antagonistic way,

"Sir Falcon. To what do I owe the pleasure of your gun scope?"

Yang looked straight in the eyes of the young but unkempt-looking officer pointing a gun at her face. He was a man about thirty years of age, but looked young enough to be twenty. One of the reasons was because he kept a cleanly shaved chin, which Yang had made fun of countless times during many standoffs. When the taunts finally got to him, he started wearing his clothes unclean and rumpled despite his assistant's constant complaints, and hanged limply at the edge of his mouth a cigarette that he doesn't actually smoke to give the appearance of an older man. To put it nicely, it fit him as well as an F-size bra. Yang could still remember the day he showed up in his new appearance while she was roughing up a pub who refused to cough, and she had laughed so hard that she came a literal inch away from being caught by a collapsing shutter. To this day Yang still found it hard to believe that anyone would hire such an idiotic-looking man, much less promote him to an inspector.

But he was undeniably brilliant. In fact, he was probably the only competent cop in the entire city. Somehow this strange man had managed to avoid detection and sneak his way up the ranks, and ever since the Yang clan had been annoyed again and again by his constant meddling and impressive foresight. It's not as if they hadn't tried to oust him out through politics or violence too, but Falcon always managed to wiggle his way out through the smallest loopholes, not to mention his assistant was an extremely capable bodyguard. Eventually Yang was sent out to deal with him, and the game of cat and mouse has continued until this very day. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him her nemesis: The blonde woman honestly could not think of anyone else who would dare crack a goddamn fire extinguisher at the back of her head anyway – although she did pay him back by sending him to the hospital with two months of broken ribs. That was a story for another day.

"To start with, I could say that you're a sloppy murderer who came back to cover your tracks," Falcon said while keeping his tone cool and emotionless. Yang simply laughed at the accusation and jabbed right back,

"Well, in that case that murderer may be you as well, inspector, since you're even earlier than me. But cut the jokes, I'm not in the mood to play today, so you get out of my way and I'll get out of yours."

Yang tried walking away then, but before she knew it there was the loud bang of a gunshot, and by pure reflex she dodged down just in time to see a bullet pierced itself at the wall behind her head a millisecond ago. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Immediately Yang ducked behind cover with her gauntlets poised before she spat out at Falcon in absolute fury and disbelief, " _What the fuck_  do you think you're doing!? Have you gone crazy!?"

"That's my line, Yang," The inspector's gun never left the general vicinity of her torso, and she only needed to see his eyes to understand that the policeman was indeed very, very serious and would not hesitate to make a second shot, "I thought you a delinquent, a psycho and an idiot, but I did not think that you would actually murder someone; your own people no less."

Yang stared at him incredulously before throwing up her hands furiously, not even caring if the sudden movement might cost her another shot, "Seriously? For three years we've known each other, you believe  _me_  out of all people, would harm my own family?"

But Falcon ignored her outburst completely and said, "Ten minutes ago, I received an anonymous tip. It says that the suspect is coming back to the building to clear out evidences she accidentally left behind."

Yang waved her hand repeatedly over her face as if to fan out an unmistakable stink, "Right, sure, keep making excuses like you always do. You know what I think? I think you've gone crazy and want to kill me. Oh, won't anyone save me from this cruel fate?"

"Before that, I also found a peculiar bullet casing on the floor. Concentrated red Dust, orange shell, specially made to fit one and only one person in this city," Before Yang could continue her sarcastic monologue, Falcon snaked out an object from his pocket with a free left hand – gun still infuriatingly steadied dead center at the concrete she hid behind – and immediately recognized it to be her own. However, that wasn't the part that surprised her, as Falcon quickly pointed it out, "If this was just an empty casing I would've thrown it out the window already, but as you can see this is unused, and I find it highly unlikely that you would misplace this bullet. Do you think someone could've stolen this from you?"

"… Well, I guess that's a bit strange," Yang reluctantly dodged the subject. At the age of thirteen, every wannabe Huntsmen were taught how to build their own weapons from a generic selection of parts, but owing to her rich background Yang built Ember Celica – also known officially as a Dual Ranged Shot Gauntlets (DRSG) – completely out of custom parts she designed herself down to the bullets themselves. Of course she could just buy a bunch of preset 12 gauge Dust magazines and use them just fine, but when she needed a bit more oomph behind her punches she would switch to a custom set of magazines which Dust formula only she knew. That meant that no one else could've possibly dropped this fresh bullet except her, but of course she knew better than anyone that she'd never been here until today.

This meant someone must've stolen it from either her person or her house, and both notions were about as insane as flying pigs. To this date the Xiao Long family logged only one theft in its forty years of history, and despite a flash of thought whispered to her that  _she_  might've returned, the blonde quickly shook the false hope out of her head. All that's left was the possibility that someone stole a bullet from her. As far as she could remember, anyone who tried that ended up in a ditch or in a ditch, so that's out too. It's no wonder Falcon suspected her this strongly.

"Look Falcon," she cautiously exposed an arm just to show that she meant no harm, "I know this doesn't exactly reflect well on me, but you know that I'm an honest woman – okay,  _fine._  So I fool around once in a while, but you know this kind of shady shit is not my style. I don't do things that I won't freely admit. If I'm going to kill someone, I'm going to do it in broad daylight with the fucker burned to a crisp with steamy, yellow flames. You get what I mean?"

"I'm sure you know this, but recently there has been rumors about smaller clans rising up against your family," again Falcon brushed away her words again as if he didn't hear them, and that obnoxious attitude was one of the reasons why they would never get along, "The bombing afterwards was apparently a result of that. Tell me, Yang: how fares the investigation of the matter from your side?"

Under any normal circumstances, the blonde woman would never have revealed any internal information to the authorities. However, if she does not clear her name right now Falcon was very likely going to report her as a prime suspect, and whoever came up with this terrible scheme would then get exactly what they wanted. It's really a fucking shame she had the luck to meet the one cop she could not bribe in the entire city. In the end, she decided that the circumstances called for extraordinary measures – not that she actually had any useful leads in the first place – and said, 

"You probably won't believe me, but so far we couldn't find anything at all. Foreigners, spies, rebels. In fact the rumors you heard about the other families? All lies. That was the first thing we checked on our list, and if it was true you would've seen a more familiar kind of bombing already."

"I… see. And he says, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, huh." Falcon replied in a most chilling tone, and Yang had a feeling that whatever that's going to happen next was not going to be pleasant. But then the inspector's eyes softened just a fraction, and he finally dropped his Dust pistol and put it back to the holster. Yang heaved a long sigh of relief – still slumped behind the wall just in case the inspector suddenly changed his mind – and felt unbelievably exhausted even though it was just past eleven.

"Glad you finally understand I'm not a freaking murderer. Now can I go, please?"

Falcon shook his head firmly as those black eyes suddenly hardened into steel once more, "You're still a prime suspect, Yang Xiao Long. Right now the evidence – little as it is – is set directly against you. I'm letting you go, but only because there's something I need you to check."

"My dear Falcon, you know I don't help cops. I especially detest spying against my own family," Yang replied bluntly.

But Inspector Falcon shook his head, and his expression was a mix of sarcastic laughter and sadness that she did not understand,

"I can see that you're a good person, and I actually believe that you're innocent in this particular case. But it's about time you see the truth. You're a smart woman, Yang; you must've already realized it deep down your heart."

"What are you talking about?" Yang demanded angrily.

"I'm saying that the Xiao Long clan is playing their own drama. I'm saying that this murderer is one of  _your_  people," Falcon's words sent a cold chill down her spine as she shuddered uncontrollably, "You have a  _traitor_  in the midst, Yang Xiao Long, and one that's pretty high up too, if not the  _highest_. I suggest you find them before it's too late."

Then everything blew up in fire and pain, and the world Yang came to know collapsed into a fiery, black hell.

* * *

When Yang woke up, the first thing she saw was fire, and more fire. How long was she out? Seconds, minutes, an hour? Her head was splitting apart with intense pain and her right wrist felt either broken or dislocated. She couldn't be bothered to check in her completely disoriented state. What she did know however, was that someone out of their fucking minds had set a fucking bomb in the fucking room, and if she hadn't instinctively enveloped herself in Aura flames she might've died right there and then. In fact, the explosion had been so strong she was surprised the building hasn't collapsed yet –

Abruptly her already shaken features became drained of all color, and Yang cried out and crawled unsteadily towards the only other person in this floor. Lying just a few feet away from her was none other than the fallen inspector, "Falcon!"

He seemed to be completely unconscious, and naturally did not provide any semblance of a reply. The man was in no state to do anything even if he could as Yang took note grimly of the horrifying burns spotting all over his body. Magically the man somehow managed to hold onto to his stupid cigarette, but it was a tiny comfort dismissed immediately in the face of impending doom. Rivals or not he was a life she couldn't no leave behind, and as soon as she got close Yang immediately ripped away the burning jacket and quickly slung Falcon over her shoulders. Suddenly a sharp pain shot up from her right ankle, and as she attempted to steady herself Yang came too close to tumbling down a rippling patch of flames. It seemed she had some bruised bones down there as well, nothing too serious but would take some time for her Aura to heal it completely. Yang gritted her teeth in determination and began descending down the floors at a painfully slow one step at a time. As much as she wanted to rush things – especially when the building could potentially collapse on them any time soon – her injuries and burden were simply too much to push herself any further than the current pace.

"– Bzzcrack –  _explosions – backup! Help_  –"

Around the crackling concrete steps of the third floor, she heard the static crackling of a radio and accidentally fell a few steps down the stairs in surprise while muttering string of curses under her breath. Miraculously, the bastard's walkie-talkie seemed to be working despite having rolled through the massive explosion. Sill, Yang was grateful for the distraction, if only to temporarily forget the aches and pain of her body and the ever looming threat of death. So she listened.

"–  _Damn explosions_  – Bzz –  _everywhere! The fuck is going on_   **BOOM**  –"

She listened.

"Crraackkk –  _Unit 103 r-reporting, Residential District 20 and 21 is… the… the whole fucking place is gone_  –"

She listened.

" _What the fuck is this shit!? Who_  Crrraccckkkkkk –  _Paul? Paul! Don't you fucking die on me! Don't you_   **BOOM BOO** Crrraaaaackkkkk –"

This cannot be true. Why is she listening to this? This is such bullshit, the damn thing's so broken that it's practically spewing nonsense.

" _Aaahh! Ahhh! They're shooting at us! I don't know who the hell they are but they're AGGHHHH_ –"

" _Fuck you, fuck all of you! How dare you kill her! How dare you_   **THUD**  –"

This must be a dream. That's it; her injuries must be so bad that she's hallucinating like having inhaled a potful of drugs. Hallucinating so fucking badly that even her eyes are all blurry.

" _Oh god, I know that guy – of course, it could only be them, it's_   **THUD** "

" _Why? Why are you doing this! Stop it_   **BOOM** "

But if this was really a dream then why was she crying? The inside of her mouth tasted like blood. Her left fist had tightened so hard it like it would break. Maybe it will, and then the pain will make it all go away. Maybe –

_"Papa…? Papa? C'mon, we have to go… Papa?"_

No.

_"Papa, c'mon! Don't just lie there, stand up! Papa?"_

No.  _No._  She needed to turn off the radio. If she listens to any more of this, she didn't know what she would do – she might just –

_"Papa… hiikk… Please... wake up… hiikuu… I won't be a bad girl anymore, I'll listen to anything you say so please… wake –"_

**BANG.**

* * *

When Falcon came to consciousness, the first thing that registered in his brain was unbelievable pain. That was however no useful input, so he did his best to ignore it and opened his eyes. There. He saw first a blue sky, then a familiar flowing hair of gold that comforted him far more than he would ever admit to its owner. Setting his current condition aside – there really was no need to confirm what he already felt with every inch of burned skin and flesh – the inspector immediately began trying to process in his mind exactly what had happened before his memory cut away at the segment where he called out one of Yang's people to be a traitor. His face darkened instantly. Was Yang the one who tried to kill him? But he didn't see her use her Semblance –

_**BOOM.** _

The ground beneath him rumbled ominously, and his heartbeat jolted as if recoiling from an unpleasant memory. That's right, it wasn't a fire but an explosion that took him out. A bomb. It was a bomb placed somewhere between the floors that the police had missed; those useless bastards. Was the boom he heard just now another explosion like this one? The implications were terrifying to say the least. He needed more information.

"Yang." he rasped.

"You awake? Good. I was getting tired of babysitting." The blonde woman did not turn around to look at him, and for some reason it made him feel uneasy. He tried shrugging off the weird feeling and asked, "What happened while I was out?"

She did not answer him. Instead, the blonde woman continued talking as if she had never heard, "The hospital is gone, but luckily for your assistant Iris is a passable healer. I gave her a call and she should be arriving soon. You just stay put and do nothing for now."

"What? What happened to the hospital?"

But she did not answer. Her tone was flat, emotionless. It's as if her soul had flown somewhere far, far away, and Falcon found himself growing increasing nervous. It felt completely uncharacteristic of the blonde criminal he knew to be infinitely cheerful no matter what the circumstances. If she wouldn't tell him what's going on, then he'll just have to see it for himself. With immense difficulty he began extracting his limbs from the pavement, feeling every bit of his broken bones and injuries biting at the limits of his control with excruciating pain. Yang did not come to his aid. When it became obvious that he could not sit upright, Falcon chose to roll sideways instead; surely he could do at least that much. His vision swung around dangerously, but now he was finally facing towards Yang, and he saw –

The first thing he saw was the black eyes of a dead woman, her body scorched black and smoking as if burned by hell fire. He saw a row of once fine buildings wrecked and burned down into black skeletons of their former shape, with the grounds and further buildings still ablaze in roaring fire and ashes. He saw wrecked cars, wrecked lamp posts, wrecked streets and the sky choking with the biggest and blackest smoke column he has ever seen. He tried to pretend that he didn't see the dead bodies. Dead men, dead women, dead child, dead  _everywhere._  But he couldn't. He saw  _Hell,_  and he knew.

He wasn't going to forget this for the rest of his life.

"I'm going. If what you said earlier is true, then I best go back and settle things before it gets any worse."

"Wait!" Yang began walking away, but Falcon cried out before succumbing to a round of terrible coughing. The blonde woman gave him time until his breathing finally steadied, "Where are you headed to? If a  _coup d'état_  had happened, the enemy is most likely at the central government right now –"

"You brain isn't working, Falcon. My family will only be at one place. Anyway, just leave everything to me."

Yang strode off again, and for some reason the further she went, the brighter the blonde woman seemed to be, and soon it grew so sharp Falcon had to look away. From Yang's body emerged the most gigantic column of golden fire he had ever seen, and the heat was so terrible that every piece of metal three feet away of her melted into hot vapor.

_"I'll burn them all."_

  
  



	5. Ghosts

When she rounded the final corner of a wall, her destination was within sight. There stood the Xiao Long family mansion, her home for seventeen years, and also the only place she could think of where the mastermind behind all the atrocities hid. Her Semblance roared. As she got closer to the gates, she saw many fully armed guards – far more than Yang has ever seen in any normal day – surrounding the entire perimeter of the mansion with guns trained at any living thing that dare passed under their scope. Not even Yang Xiao Long, the only daughter and heiress to her proud clan was an exception, and as soon as she stepped into view countless number of red dots was trained instantly all over her body. Virtually every man looked to be running on thin ice with terror etched on every one of their faces, but it was only to be expected after such an unprecedented magnitude of unrestrained terrorism. Under any other circumstances, Yang would've gone immediately to comfort her subordinates or relieve some of the obvious tension.

She was nowhere in the mood to even talk.

"I will say this only once," Yang said with eyes as red as blood, "I am not the person you're looking for, so get out of my way.  _Now._ "

They scurried away like rats. Not even the bravest of thugs was stupid enough to cross her path. Yang easily strode her way in as soon as the metal gate slid open, and for an instant her pacing quickened before she forcibly suppress it down to a slow but steady gait. In fact, the further she went the smaller her Semblance flames became, until finally they dissipated completely with only her eyes still colored red in fury. If Yang was to follow her true desires she would have sprinted like a mad fire bull directly towards the gathering hall where she knew they would be there, waiting to answer her questions. But no. As much as she was desperate to end this even a second sooner, the thinker inside Yang knew that her injuries still required some time to heal and normalize. She especially understood that if it came down to a fight, if it came down to the worst case scenario, she had to ensure that her ankle and wrist were at least usable, and only then she would stand the slimmest of chance of coming out of this alive and atone for this massacre.

Her victory was already assured. It was absolutely pointless to think otherwise.

At long last, after an excruciating five minutes of walk with absolutely not a single soul at sight, Yang had finally arrived to the open doorway that would lead her to the answers she sought. Have all the non-combatants been sent home or at least moved to somewhere else? That was one comforting thought at least; she could not even bear to think of accidentally injuring any one of them, not after all the things she wished she had never seen or heard. Sucking in a deep breath, the blonde woman steeled herself and passed through the doorway. It was time.

"You're late," a masculine voice greeted her, cool and unfeeling, "I almost thought you couldn't make it."

The first person she saw was Ren. He was kneeling down on the floor at the middle of the gathering hall, posture straight and magenta eyes sharp and guarded as usual. This would've been a completely normal sight if it wasn't for the dual pistols in his hands, which was a banned item in this sacred hall. Granted, this particular occasion was rather special, so Yang was not surprised in the slightest to see this.

What  _did_  surprise her however was the injured person lying face down on the floor beside Ren. It was Nora Valkyrie, and in complete contrast to her usual hyperactive and unstoppable self, the woman looked bruised, battered and completely out cold. Despite herself, Yang ran towards the duo with true concern. Her entire body was littered with so many cuts that Yang almost recoiled at the sight of it despite having seen far worse things at the city. Ruby was one thing, but Yang was fairly certain that there weren't many people in this city who could put a single scratch onto the powerful Guardian, much less beat her into such a pitiful state. The one person she thought capable of doing this was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened, Ren? Where's Da?" Yang inquired.

"I don't know," Nora's condition seemed to have caused him great distress. Yang thought she saw dry tear streaks on the young man's cheeks, although she was tactful enough not to point it out, "The Master summoned us here, but when the explosions happened I had Nora come first while I organize the perimeter defense. When I came back, she's already like this."

Ren looked towards the very end of the gathering hall, and Yang followed suit. For the first time, she noticed an open, nearly unnoticeable flat steel door at the far end of the wall. Yang thought she knew every secret passage in the estate, but it was apparent she missed out this one, "I see," Yang glared towards the suspicious entrance with sharp menace, "Stay here with Nora. I'll go check it out."

"Wait. I should go with you," Ren tried standing up, but when Nora let out a sudden moan the young man froze and was instantly back down on his knees again, looking at the groaning woman with concern. Yang sighed lightly and said,

"Just stay here. You're going to be useless anyway if you're distracted like this. If we have to f…" she swallowed down the words, unwilling to say what she had in mind. A boom occurred a little too close than either Guardians would've preferred, and Yang said, "You hear that? I'm not sure what's going on out there but things are getting out of hand. Best we have someone around to coordinate our men."

Lie Ren hesitated, his features wrought with worry until finally, the young man nodded and looked back down towards Nora. Noting that the duo would do fine, Yang headed towards the eerie doorway immediately and did not look back. Her posture was left purposely lax and careless - she didn't think they were the traitor, but if if there was a one in a million chance it was true, she didn't want to be the one on the reactive side. Eventually she reached the metal door - a smooth silver with two simple handles on each side - sucked in a deep breath, and pulled it open. Nothing happened. Casually, she turned backwards and saw Ren utterly oblivious of her actions as he became completely focused in the task of healing Nora with his Aura. She let the breath loose. For now at least, there be no traitors.

She walked in.

* * *

The girl watched it all happen from a hill overseeing the city. Smoke and ashes, fire and stones. It was like a scene from hell, and even this far away the wind seemed to carry the screams of the dead.

But if she had to be completely honest with herself, she didn't care much about the massacre that was happening before her. From the moment she became an Executioner, from the moment she became set on the path of vengeance, the only death she cared about were the Demons'. Maybe Mrs. Amberson salvaged the dredges of compassion in her heart she thought she lost forever, but that didn't mean that she was either compassionate or stupid enough to try and salvage this mess. Her time and skills were dedicated to the hunt and nothing else.

Still, it wasn't as if she felt no desire to lend a hand. Even though she had stayed at Jiu Xu for only a day, it was a rare time of contentment that she almost never get to experience her entire life. Taiyang Xiao Long was cool, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie made a funny duo, and Yang…

_Yang was a 'friend'… I guess?_

She shook her head and cleared out the stray thoughts. Looking down one last time at the burning city of Jiu Xu, Ruby Rose walked away and vanished without a trace.

* * *

The Xiao Long family has a secret.

Long long ago the Xiao Long family was just like any other; normal humans living normal lives going about their everyday. But then, a terrible tragedy happened. While there were no longer any records left about that accident, one thing was certain: The Xiao Long family were made scapegoats to shoulder all the atrocities born of an accident, and since then they were shunned completely from common society. Had this happened during modern times it would not have been an issue. All the family needed to do was to move to a different city and start anew.

But the older times were different. The people were more violent, more barbaric, and not nearly cultured enough to even understand the basic concepts of ethics or the law. The Xiao Long family was hated, abused, and terrorized by their own people. It was a common sight to see them beaten up on the street be it man, woman, elderly, or even a child. The worst part was that they were virtually confined by malicious neighbors, and every time they tried the poor folks were just beaten right back to their cage; to where they 'rightfully' should be. It was hellish. Those who hadn't already killed themselves endured cruelty and torture far beyond any stretch of imagination, and it was not a stretch to say that even a Grimm got better treatment - a swift death - than the suffering family.

Naturally, the Xiao Long family began to hate. Their hatred was deep enough that it wasn't just directed towards the community who oppressed them, but all of mankind. This was the beginning of one of the unholiest worship in Remnant – Demon worship – for if they were treated like monsters, then why should they shackle themselves to their humanity and be tormented for eternity? Why don't they become real monsters and show the bastards exactly how terrible they could be? And so every day they would pray to their black god, wishing with all their heart for the death of all the people around them. They prayed for their tormentors to suffer unto and beyond death, for mankind's very own existence was a blasphemy to the world itself. They became a cult. They believed that the Grimm wasn't the destroyer, but their one true savior – savage angels sent from the heavens to liberate them all for this terrible existence called life. And so they prayed. They prayed with all their souls hoping that one day the Grimm would descend and kill every human in this world.

Since then, the Xiao Long family stood a little straighter, a little prouder. Their once absolute fear became replaced by blind faith, and hence they no longer to anything their tormentors threw at them. They did not react to any form of sufferance, and even when the residents murdered a member of their family right before their eyes the only thing they did was to stare. It didn't take long for the townspeople to realize that something was different. It didn't take long for them to realize that torturing them was no longer fun. Eventually, the townspeople even started to fear them, and soon they chose to avoid the Xiao Long family rather than endure their inexplicably eerie stares.

It was a mistake. Their avoidance had unwittingly given the Xiao Long family more freedom than they ever had before, and these fallen souls wasted no time in exploiting the chance to progress their evil worship. It was then the unspeakable horrors and deaths began: Mr. Liang, blacksmith and father of two of the southern streets found crucified on the hidden walls of a dark alley. Mrs. Johnson's twin babies suddenly vanished from their beds, before reappearing the next day on the porch in the form of two bloody, little heads. The madness only escalated in both frequency and cruelty, and after a few weeks of mass shock and uncontrollable terror, inevitably, the fingers were once again pointed towards the Xiao Long family. Thousands of people surrounded their pitiful wooden hut with torches and curses as they dragged the last three family members out of their holes for execution - a mother, a son and a three months old baby. The father had died two weeks prior a sack of picked clean bones. With the baby still wailing in her mother's breast, they tied both mother and son up to a pole on top of a mountain of firewood. Then, the burning commenced.

But there was a difference. Unlike the last time where the entire tragedy was an accident, this time the Xiao Long family had planned for their own deaths. During their short-lived freedom they had murdered with pure, undiluted hatred a total of ninety six people as sacrifices for their evil god, and when the ninety-ninth sacrifice was presented the Xiao Long family believed that a Demon, the most terrifying and deadliest kind of Grimm would be summoned unto this world. Thus it was with a final laughter of madness and hatred that the duo and an innocent toddler died to complete the absurd ritual.

And they did it. It should not have been possible, because believe it or not, there was  _no such thing as a Demon summoning ritual_. But against all common sense they had succeeded, and a terrifying monster ancient and powerful unlike anything the city has ever seen before descended unto the world. In one night the entire city was wiped out of all its populace, and the souls of the dead that should've passed on to the world beyond was trapped and forced to exist in the its prison of hell forever. They will be forced for an eternity to live the final day of their lives. They will be forced to relive every moment of their agony and pain as the Demon ripped out their hearts and limbs and brains and devoured them all whole. It won't be until a few years later venturing outsiders finally had a name for the Demon, and they called it the  _Bu Si Mian_ , Face of the Un-death. For the longest of time, it would seem that the eternal cycle of suffering would never be broken.

That was until forty years ago. That was when a foolish group of adventurers wandered into the uncharted territory, and through luck, courage, persistence and the purest of hearts, the city was finally liberated from its eternal prison.

* * *

"… This city used to be nameless," her Da said solemnly, "We now call it  _Jiu Xu_ , 'The Redemption'. Funnily enough, that was enough to attract fools to settle in this city, and since then it has enjoyed only peace and prosperity."

Yang did not say a word. More accurately speaking, she had not had a chance to interject during the entire tale. Thirty minute ago, she was running down a seemingly endless spiral of stone-carved staircase deeper and deeper underground with only her Aura to light her path until finally, she reached a strange and unfamiliar space. The darkness was overwhelming, and the place was huge enough that even her flames could not fully illuminate it. Warily, Yang began observing her immediate surroundings and tried to grasp some sense from them.

At first glance the cavern had looked like a temple. There were rows and rows of human-sized statues aligned to both sides of the entrance she came through, and a single rock paved pathway roughly two meters wide leading straight into deeper darkness. Tugged by curiosity, Yang had moved closer to the alien statues for a better look, and upon closer inspection she realized that they were eerie sculptures of some of the most grotesque creatures she has ever seen. Every single one of them was unique in shape, and there were literally thousands of these scary things. Yang felt the coldest chill down her spine even as she hastily backed away from the creepy objects. With a little bit of focus, Yang intensified her Aura flames ever so slightly, just in case these fuckers suddenly came to life and ambush her or something. The blonde brawler continued walking forwards one step at a time, and she had to force her hands down to her sides in a relaxed manner. She could keep herself in a fighting stance, but that would only cause her to feel even more pressured, as if the atmosphere wasn't oppressive enough already.  _All this time,_  she thought ominously to herself,  _seventeen years not knowing that there's a hellhole right underneath my nose._

At long last she arrived at the end of the cavern and into a wide, circular opening. Looks like a platform of some sort. As she stepped closer towards the center the huge thing emerged suddenly from the darkness, and Yang came a hair's breadth away from firing a round before her brain made sense of the thing that she was seeing. In front of her was a face, though it is in no way resembling a human's. It was a giant thing that had to be at least twenty meters wide and paired with the biggest and most terrifying black eyes the blonde woman has ever seen. While logic dictated that the black color was just paint or some other coloring substances, for some reason her instincts screamed that it was something absolutely otherworldly; that she would do well to stay away from it as far away as possible. There was no nose. A elongated smile stretched from ear to ear in the shape of a gigantic jaw. As she stepped cautious forwards Yang noted its sickly white body stretching all the way down a pitch black, seemingly bottomless crevice. It could be fifty meters tall; it could be a thousand. Yang felt her head spinning mad with the implications as she withdrew from the edge – what does this mean? Could there be something else down there? Who built this statue? Could there be something else down here? Just what the hell is this place?

For the first time in her life Yang Xiao Long felt her legs shaking in uncontrollable terror. Since when did her breathing get this ragged? Since when was she drenched with sweat?  _So cold._  The blonde realized abruptly that despite her Aura she was cold enough to jump into a pit of flames. That had never happened in her life. In a desperate attempt to stay warm she forcibly summoned her Semblance flame into existence, and although she would likely exhaust herself a lot more than expected anything was preferable to this bone chilling cold that's seeping into her soul.  _This place is fucking scary, fucking unnatural, and I'm still not seeing Da anywhere at all,_ Yang thought to herself while spinning around for the exit,  _I guess he isn't here then. High time to g_  –

" _Fuck!!!_ "

Yang leaped backwards, feet barely stopping in time as she remembered that she had a bottomless pit directly behind her. Standing at the only entrance and exit of this circular platform was her father Taiyang Xiao Long, and he was staring at her with blank eyes that sent terrible chills down her heart.

"The fucking hell, Da, don't fucking scare me like that! I was looking for you!" Yang fought down her fear and walked towards him, all the while trying not to think if he had been staring at her like that for the entire time.

"Would you like to hear a story, Yang?"

 _A story? Now? In this fucked up place?_  "Da, you know I love your stories but if you don't mind, I'd really like that we leave this shithole first."

But despite her protests, the old man began talking as if he didn't hear her, and after a lengthy, one-sided storytelling session it seemed that he was finally over. Sensing that Taiyang was waiting her response, Yang tried to think of something that does not fall under the 'can we just go like fucking  _now_ ' category, "So we're descendants of the same cursed Xiao Long family? That can't be right; you just said the last of them got burned to death."

"That is partially true," Taiyang Xiao Long stated with unbelievable steadiness, considering their surroundings, "At the time, every person of the Xiao Long family was killed, not to say that the Demon murdered everyone in the end anyway. But four months before the terrible tragedy, a woman of great stature had come from outside the city. By pure coincidence she met up with the eldest son of the Xiao Long family on a stray back alley, and they fell in love with each other.

However, the townspeople were constantly observing the Xiao Long family for any chances of abuse, so the affair was quickly discovered, and while they could not mistreat the woman without risking civil war, it was a simple thing to force her out and forbid her from ever returning to the place. The son was executed the next day for adultery. The woman on the other hand had a child, and when news of the city's demise reached her ears she decided to flee far, far away from the accursed place. It was a good thing she did, or the consequences would've been unimaginable."

Yang closed her eyes, finding it impossible to relax with the malice-filled story clogging her mind and the pair of black eyes creating invisible pressure behind her, "Okay. So we're the descendants of Xiao Long, for obviously obvious reasons. Are you saying that we're cursed? No, wait - did the affair happen before the Demon worshiping, or after?"

Taiyang smiled approvingly at her sharp insight and said, "Before. But a Demon's curse is not as simple as that, especially when the human, against all odds, had summoned one of the most powerful evil in Remnant. Therefore every person with the Xiao Long blood flowing in their body were marked, even if they don't know it."

"Marked how? Does it even matter if we were marked? The Demon never moved from the city anyway, and it can't possibly affect people that far away!" Yang replied.

Still Taiyang kept his exasperating smile, "You're underestimating a Demon's curse. It is true that  _Bu Si Mian's_  strength could only extend a certain radius away from the city, but it is at least hundred kilometers long. Every men under its influence are afflicted with a powerful need for violence, and the closer they are, the worse it gets. Weaker-minded individuals would outright attack anyone that crosses their path like rabid zombies.

But they are the lucky ones. The people whose blood was purer; the people who are direct descendants of the cursed clan had it far worse. Even outside of the Demon's influence these people are easily irritable, prone to violence, and were struck often by moments of indescribable hatred for mankind. The person's will does not matter: One second a husband may be tending to his wife, and the next he may be violently beating her until the strange fit eventually passed away. Inadvertently, nearly every people with the Xiao Long blood turned out to be criminals."

Taiyang coughed slightly before continuing, "The real horror though, starts when they entered the Demon's influence. You would recall that the summoners of the Demon had a deep hatred towards the mankind that oppressed them unfairly, especially towards all the humans in the city, and that is exactly its sole purpose of existence. Had even one of the original summoners survived, the Demon would've possessed the living vessel and be able to travel anywhere to exact vengeance against every single human in Remnant. Since they have all perished, the Demon had no choice but to wait - in fact, it actively calls out to them - for a suitable vessel to step into its territory. To head towards its heart," Taiyang hesitated for a second before pointing a finger to the floor, "To come here where it resides, so it may possess them and finally resume its quest to kill every human being in the world."

* * *

Suddenly Yang felt as if the temperature has dropped a couple more degrees, and her hands were visibly shaking despite her attempts to regain control.  _Well shit, at least I know now why this place feels like the pits of Hell itself. This_  is  _Hell,_  "Get to the fucking point already, Da. What does that have to do with us? I've never felt anything you just described! Like sure, sometimes I get mad and sometimes I get really mad, but I'm pretty sure they're normal mad. You look pretty fine and dandy to me yourself!"

"You used to hate listening to my heroic tales, don't you Yang?" He started softly, "This time though, I'm afraid that you have to. Would you entertain me for just a little longer?"

For a second, Yang felt a trickle of relief flowing down her skin. Whatever happened up there, whatever the hell was going on with this place, her father was still here. Yang said softly, "Of course I will, Da."

Taiyang returned a thankful smile and nodded, "I told you before that a group of adventurers had put an end to this tragedy. What I did not say however, was that I – no, me and your mother – was part of that group."

Yang's mouth fell open. She wasn't exactly surprised to hear her Da's involvement in the case – he was a hero after all, once upon a time – no, she was surprised to hear him talk about mother. Ever since she passed away five years ago, Da had not talked a single word about her. It was as if he had completely forgotten her existence overnight, and he even had the galls to marry a complete bitch which thankfully died in the hands of some other crazy woman. His callousness of the matter was one of the main reason she grew up to be so rebellious.

"Forty years ago, I was part of an adventuring group called the 'Rose of Summer'. During our journey, we accepted a request to investigate the strange uprising of violence in a small town, and one thing after another we were eventually led to this place.

You said that I look fine and dandy, and I suppose I was doing well for this part of my life. But this wasn't always the case, Yang, and forty years ago it definitely wasn't. As I've mentioned before, anyone with the cursed blood would be affected by the Demon, and as the direct descendant of the lost Xiao Long family I was exceptionally suited to become the Demon's vessel. It wasn't just constant outbursts of violence, I was plagued endlessly by the worst kind of dreams you can imagine; terrible nightmares that turned out to be real memories from the past. The closer I came to the place, the more I lost myself amidst an overwhelming sense of hatred, and at the very end I lost sight of even my own identity. I thought I was a Demon, I thought hated mankind, and I thought wanted to kill all of them - my allies, my friends, everyone."

His eyes watered a little. Yang thought she might be seeing things, but the glint of tears was definitely there, "But your mother never gave up. Lia was a high priestess from the mythical southern tribe of Sabara, and she was very well versed in soul cleansing magic. That was also the only reason why you're unaffected by the curse, Yang – you have your mother's holy powers in you, along with my flames but without its inherent darkness. Throughout the ordeal, when even my own friends had begun to doubt me, she never left my side and did everything in her power to fight the Demon's influence. In the end  _Bu Si Mian_  failed to possess me and chose another body instead, and it gave us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to vanquish it once and for all.

However, as you may have noticed we were not as successful as we thought. For one, we failed to destroy the core body of the demon. The two black gems behind you are the cores; living constructs of pure malice," Taiyang Xiao Long pointed towards her back, and Yang cocked her head slightly to catch a glimpse of the terrifying eyes that seemed to see right into her soul, "Not even our great leader Summer Rose was able to destroy it. After all her skills were specialized against Demons with a living body, and at the time Dust technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now. Lia wasn't powerful enough to break it, and since my flames are of the same origin as these stones it is ironically the one thing in this world I cannot destroy. Someone needed to look after them so that it could not be misused or even revived into existence, so after Lia and I got married, we decided to settle right here. We believed that given enough time, we would eventually find a way to destroy these things and finally end the threat that's been plaguing this land for countless centuries."

His features grew dark then, and there was a terrible sadness in his eyes that would not fade away, "But five years ago, Lia… Lia died. I've never told you this, but while your mother has incredible power, they came at a steep price. Every time she cast a healing spell, every time she purged evil from a body, she was sacrificing her own life force to do it. Can you imagine how terrible I felt knowing that she sacrificed half her lifespan to save me? That night the blood price finally caught up with her, and even when facing death she was still trying to comfort me, telling me that everything is going to be okay. It is not. I watched her die, and I couldn't do anything to save her. How pathetic. I don't deserve Lia. I  _never_  deserved your mother," Taiyang Xiao Long barked out a harsh laughter, even as Yang tried speaking and found no words to offer.

"In the end, the gems remained intact. When Lia was still around, we would try a new spell or two and see if we can break the damn thing, but to no avail. Ever since she passed, there's no one left who could purify the malefic energy it gathered slowly but surely from the people above. I tried looking for another Sabaran tribesmen who could help me, but they're mythical for a reason. And finally…" he paused, "Finally, my nightmares have begun once more. It has been this way ever since Lia passed away, and although I have been doing my best to suppress them, two weeks ago I woke up to find myself at unfamiliar place. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, later that evening, three of our men died due to an explosion at the exact area. Since then, the blackouts had happened with alarming frequency, and after a little bit of investigation, it seemed that I wasn't the only one who was affected too. There is no mistake. The terrible  _Bu Si Mian_  has awakened once more, and this time even those who aren't of the cursed blood are slowly being controlled. Or maybe it was because they're close to me that the people are being affected? I never knew I was this attractive, hahaha!"

Her old man let out a chuckle, but Yang Xiao Long only felt her heart turned ice cold and her mind a whirlpool of disbelief and fear. She asked with a trembling voice, "Da, there's nothing funny about this. Nothing at all."

All the sudden Taiyang Xiao Long frowned, and his dark eyes squinted with both harshness and anger, "That's right, Yang Xiao Long. This is not a situation to be laughed at. With every passing second I'm losing control over my own body, and in perhaps an hour – no, less than that –  _Bu Si Mian_  will possess me and be revived unto this world once more. Oh, its powers are far weaker than it was in the past, but would not stop it from slaughtering the entire city and turn it into an eternal hell once more. I will not allow it. This is the place Lia died to protect, this is our home, and  _I will not allow Jiu Xu to fall!_ "

Yang flinched. She had never see him so angry; she had never seen him roared like the very thunder that strikes from the heavens. But that was exactly why she had never been prouder to call this man her father. The shocked but determined daughter stared at Taiyang Xiao Long with renewed hope and pride – Da must have found a way to stop this, and with time running out, she must do everything in her might to aid him in stopping this Demon once and for all. As if reading her mind, her father said,

"To do that, I need your help, Yang Xiao Long. This is a task that you must accomplish if we were to destroy this piece of shit and save everyone," Taiyang stared right into her eyes with burning intensity, and Yang stared right back with what she thought to be equal determination. She would do it. No matter how hard it may be, no matter how impossible things may seem, she would finish it. Yang gave a single nod of acknowledgement, and waited for his words.

"Good," Taiyang Xiao Long smiled viciously and took one step towards Yang, "The ultimate objective is to destroy the two black gems, and only your Semblance flames – a beautiful union of my powers and Lia's – could do it. But first things first: You must kill me now."

  
  



	6. Crisis

Lie Ren was special. At the age of six, when he was but a little boy shopping happily with his papa and mama on a random street, they had the misfortune of being attacked by a vicious snatcher which resulted tragically in his parents' death. Blinded by anger the boy awoke to his Semblance, and as he swung two puny fists at a sneering thug's knees imagine his surprise when he suddenly found missing an entire leg. Fueled by the his howls of terror and pain even the onlookers had looked frightened enough to bludgeon the poor kid to death, until a passing Taiyang came to his side and promptly brought under control. That he had broken the thug's other leg because his pathetic screams annoyed him was… questionable, but it was an undeniable fact that the violet-eyed, kindly master had saved his life. Since then he had lived under his benefactor's roof to repay the favor, and to better control his Semblance and skills.

The young boy grew fast. He took to the Xiao Long style martial arts with surprising aptitude, and in just two years had already surpassed his Master's daughter, Yang Xiao Long in terms of pure skills. Outrageously competitive, this unfortunately became a hot friction point where the girl would butt heads with him at every chance she got even though all Lie Ren wanted was just some peace and quiet. The resultant brawls were never pretty, and after one incident after another eventually Master Yang separated the duo from each other completely, even during meals. Not that the ban was actually that effective since Yang was as cunning as a fox, but they did meet up a lot less frequently than before, and Lie Ren very much appreciated the extra hours of silence.

That would not last, however. Another year passed, and this time it was Mistress Lia who brought in a new child. The instant Lie Ren saw the new entree he felt his headache increasing tenfold than it was before. The newcomer was a loud, boorish, hyperactive embodiment and wore by far the silliest smile he had ever seen to date. Worse, when the girl caught him peeking out at her from behind a stone pillar, she had run up to him and practically screamed into his ears that he was now the first friend she had ever made. At the time, he did not yet understand the cruel meaning behind her words and was just trying his absolute best to escape her monstrously strong grasp. When he had begged from Master Yang and Lia to help, they only shook their heads, smiled enigmatically before walking away, leaving him to his misery. Later on, he would learn that they had brought the girl back for the exact purpose of making him – and Yang, and the new girl as well, although again he wouldn't know this until later on – a bit more 'sociable'. That got him sulking for days before Mistress Lia cooked up his favorite lotus soup and cooed him into acceptance with her silver tongue.

The girl's name was Nora Valkyrie, and despite every justified skepticism she would eventually become the most important partner and friend he ever had.

* * *

"Nngh… Ren?"

"Nora. How are you feeling?" Ren could not begin to describe the ridiculous amount of relief welling inside his heart, even as he kept his hand hovering just a few inches away from Nora's stomach to heal her with his Aura. Already the signs of fatigue were starting to creep up to his head. While the young man had unbelievable skill and control for his age, he was not blessed with a huge capacity of the soul, and the healing – simple as it was – was costing Lie Ren a great deal of strength.

Nora Valkyrie was not his best partner by coincidence or luck. Even at her groggy state she immediately noticed the sheen of sweat coating the young man's forehead and the slight unnoticeable shake of his glowing right hand. With a hidden sigh, she grabbed his wrist and pulled it away before giving him a silly smile, "Good morning, Ren. Or is it afternoon already?"

Ren began to speak, "Almost afternoon. Let me go so I can hea –"

"Caaaan't heaaaar yoooou!" Nora singsong as she plugged one side of her ears in a poor attempt to feign ignorance, "And I won't be able to hear you until you stop whatever you're trying to do right about now now  _now!_ "

Ren sighed and pulled away gently even as he bit a smile of his own, "Fine. So what happened here? Who did this to you?"

Almost immediately Nora's smile vanished, and in that instant Lie Ren understood with painful clarity that Master Taiyang was the one behind her injuries. He was the one who called them here, and when he had tended to Nora the young man recognized almost instantly the numerous cuts on her body to be caused by one of Master Taiyang's technique called the 'Dragon's Claws'. He had pretended not to be bothered by it, but Nora's expression had unsealed the lid as his pain and sadness poured out all at once. Just why is Master Taiyang doing this?

Nora's features softened just a little as she cupped her partner's cheeks with concern and comfort, but this was not the time to be dwelling in sentiments as she began retelling her story, "When I came here, I saw Master Taiyang opening that strange door at the back. He looked off somehow; talking to himself and pacing really fast for whatever reason. Then, the moment he noticed me he..." she sucked in a deep breath before continuing, "… asked me to  _kill_  him. He was very serious, Ren; I've never seen Master Taiyang look so serious before, so even though I didn't know the reason, I tried to... and I failed."

Ren took a few deep breaths to calm down his nerves. His mind was having great difficulty trying the process these shocking revelation of events, "That doesn't make sense. Why would he want that?"

"I don't know, Ren. Like I said, I don't think Master Taiyang was himself. Look," Nora raised both her arms to show the cuts that haven't healed yet, "He dragged out a fight. Master Taiyang  _never_ fights like this. The entire time, I kept getting the feeling that he was trying to hold back and give me a chance somehow. In the end, he gave up and knocked me out with a chop to the neck."

"Nora… are you suggesting that something had  _possessed_  Master Taiyang? Is that even possible?"

"Why are you asking me? You're the one with the brains!" Nora pouted a little before saying, "I don't know, really, but something is definitely wrong and we need to fix it fast. Where is Yang, by the way? I can't believe she would miss all the action!"

"Actually," Ren said hesitantly before nodding at the door, "She went in there alone about twenty minutes ago."

"She  _what?_ " Nora suddenly screeched into his right ear and causing the young man to fall on his sides, "I can't believe you, you oaf! And how could you let Yang go all by herself? This is Master Taiyang we're talking about!"

"Sorry. You know. You. Out cold," Ren surrendered himself to fate (Nora) and did not plug in his ears, knowing that she would just peel it apart and shriek into again with unassailable logic,

"I can't believe it! She's going to get all the glory and fame for defeating the strongest man in the world, and we are here just to be  _cannon fodder?_   _Outrageous!_  I won't stand for this!"

…  _That was the point?_  Before he could provide a remark of his own Nora's face hovered into view as she continued to spray saliva all over the floor. That none of it actually hit his face could only be attributed to some warped, Nora-esque logic, but it was infinitely better than having a drenched face, "We have no time to waste, Ren! You must go down there right now and help Yang! I'm almost one hundred percent sure Master Taiyang is on the verge of victory by strangling her or punching her or molesting her – no wait he's her Da, hahaha oops – and we absolutely cannot allow her to go into hero mode and suddenly come back against all odds in Remnant to come back and beat him DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

Ren tried, "But what about y –"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND, SIR?"

"… Yes, Ma'am," Ren surrendered with another sigh and stood up from the spot gingerly. Almost immediately he was assaulted by intense dizziness; a sign that he employed his Semblance way beyond his usual threshold. With a single breath, he focused on dispelling all unnecessary thoughts and honed his mind into a sharp, unblemished blade. Feeling his fatigue fading away almost immediately, the young Guardian stood up and was ready to go.

"I'll be going then," Ren strode towards the black-infused entrance without waiting for Nora's reply. That was the way she liked it, and she was loud enough to be heard from the other side of the city anyway.

"Good luck! Yell when you and Yang are almost dead! I'll be right there to save everyone like a true hero! But wait since I'm a girl shouldn't it be a heroine? But then again a heroine is always associated with useless damsels in distress or about to be paired with a heroic protagonist anyway so I suppose I should call myself a protagonist but that just sounds so lame so, whatever! Go Ren! Go and wait to be rescued by your hero! Ine!" Not one to let down expectations Nora yelled shamelessly from behind his back like thunder, and judging from the ominous whooshing sound she seemed to be swinging her hammer goodbye. So noisy, Ren thought to himself with a growing headache. For a second, the young man almost wished that she was still out cold.

But more than anything, Lie Ren had never been gladder to hear the incessant nonsense of his cheerful partner. Thank god she's okay. Smiling a secret smile that he would never allow Nora Valkyrie to see for the rest of time, the Huntsman rushed past the gaping steel doors and into the depths of darkness.

* * *

"… Well, there's that. Now the hero sleeps her beauty sleep. Now the hero recuperates and waits for the perfect time to show…" 

Nora Valkyrie stood up and stretched herself like a cat. From another person's eyes the orange-haired woman looked relaxed enough to start rolling around the floor like a cat, but her eyes held a sharp glint that never wavered from the single exit of the gathering hall. Abruptly a white-eyed, blood drenched head peeked in from the doorway, and then another, and then all hell broke loose when an entire horde of crazed-looking people burst through the narrow entrance and charged towards her with a ghastly roar. She didn't know what happened to them. The horde was a mix of her own men, strangers, whatever. That Ren somehow missed these people's presence showed exactly how exhausted his mind was, and had he known about the huge blunder he probably would've run himself into a wall.

But to Nora Valkyrie, this was a stroke of pure good luck. An unknown fire had been burning within her heart ever since she got completely thrashed by a little girl last night, and today Master Taiyang who tried to give her openings she wasn't  _good enough_ to capitalize on. Since when was she  _this_ pathetic?

"But of course, a couple of minion waves to warm up is never wrong," the girl grinned viciously and raised her weapon. There was only one way to satiate her wounded pride and bloodlust. She could already taste the violence in her mouth. In a flash, she swung right into the face of a squealing butcher and popped the fatso's head open like fresh tomato. Unlike Yang or even Ren, she had absolutely no qualms killing people who were trying to kill her; innocent or guilty, young or elderly. They're all the same. They are all the  _enemy._  Before the other crazed men could react she jumped right into the crowd and painted the world a vibrant color of flesh, bone and blood.

"Come at me! Come at me all at once!" the last daughter of the Viking tribe screamed in mad delight,  _"I'm just getting started!"_

* * *

"Left ear."

Yang spun immediately around to block the incoming jab, but it went through her guard and struck hard enough to make the world spin. Her ears ringing and her balance completely thrown, the blonde made the snap decision to leap towards a random direction without looking and just barely avoided a crushing kick to the chest. If she took that without blocking it would've killed her instantly. But despite facing a very real, very desperate life and death situation, Yang just could not summon the resolve or strength to defeat the assailant.

Just how could she possibly kill her own father?

"You don't have time to think, Yang!" The ghastly fast Huntsman reappeared right in front of Yang to send another one of those sure-death kicks towards her head, and although its speed was slow enough that she just barely dodged it by a hair's breadth, the next thing she knew a hot pain exploded from her stomach and she was sailing a good ten feet in the air before crashing into a wall. The blonde crawled unsteadily to her feet, her body a wreck of injuries and pain. The situation was hopeless. Even if she was to go all out against her Da, there was no way she could win this battle.

Suddenly Taiyang was in front of her again, his eyes stern and his lips pursed into a furious frown, "Why are you hesitating, Yang Xiao Long!? I have already given you too many chances to kill me, and yet you would squander it and act as pathetic as you are! I do not have much time left, Yang; soon I won't be able to resist it at all!"

"I can't!" Yang hollered with tears pouring down her cheeks even as she sidestepped out of the way and countered with a lifeless punch of her own, "I can't possibly kill you!"

Taiyang Xiao Long, or rather the wicked Demon inside him showed no mercy at all as he caught her fist easily and crushed it beneath his grip. Yang screamed in terrible pain as she lashed out with an explosive shot to Taiyang's face, forcing him to leap backwards only to see him sneer with contempt, "If you don't kill me, you will never be able to destroy the cores, and for every minute you delay another life is taken because of the Demon's curse. Is that what you want? Is that what you wish to see?"

Yang remembered the explosions. She recalled the screams of the living, the cries of the tormented, and the tears of a child who was murdered simply due to the whims of a fucked up Demon.  _No more._  She gathered her anger. She gathered her hatred. Yang zigzagged towards her father, not looking him in the eyes and instead focused entirely on his movements. As she dodged the first punch to the neck, parried away a straight kick and blocked yet another bone crunching chop with her steel gauntlet, Yang finally saw the opening her father left her and dove like lightning into his lap. This was it. No matter how invincible her Da was, a drill punch up the chin propelled by explosive red Dust and the full power of her Aura would blow his head clean off the torso. Her right fist might be broken, but she was ambidextrous. Her left could do it. Her left  _will_  do it. All that's left to do was to throw it; throw the killing blow and end this despair once and for all.

* * *

_Everywhere she looked there were black scorched grass, upturned soil. So much blood. The slides were split, the seesaw was burning, and even their favorite swing was left a mangled pile of scrap._

_And she… she wasn't there. Not anymore, not ever for the rest of infinity._

* * *

… But the despair wouldn't end. The dead wouldn't come back. Even if she could save many lives, she would always be tormented by that one, most precious life she gave up to make it possible. Yang could not accept that. She could never live with the consequences knowing that she had killed her Da.

She would rather die.

The single moment of hesitation was a fatal mistake. In an instant she found herself hovering two feet above the ground, unable to breathe, with a pair of powerful hands clenched around her throat and choking the life out of her. With her right hand broken she could only pull uselessly against the hold with her left, and with each second she grew weaker and weaker.  _So this is it,_ Yang's eyes blurred slowly into darkness,  _this is the end of the road for me._ She used one last bit of strength to look at her father's face, and was shocked to see tears running freely down his cheeks.

"You would let me kill you, Yang? You would let me murder my own daughter?"

_**"– RrrrraaaaAAARRRGGHHHHHHH!"** _

A ring of golden fire exploded around her body, and with a hateful hiss the half-possessed Taiyang let go and tossed her towards the floor. The blonde slumped pathetically against the ground, coughing and breathing as heavily as an asthma patient, but she was alive. She was still in the game, and she was fucking  _pissed._

"I'm going to save you, Da." Yang rasped out in a thin voice filled with determination, "You hang in there while I find a way."

"You can't, Yang. If you were older and stronger then maybe, but –"

" _Mother gave you her life!_ "

The old man froze. The whole platform shuddered as Yang cracked a thunderous fist against the floor, and as she looked up with crimson eyes she screamed, "Mother gave you her life so you can live! Are you going to squander her hope like this? Are you going to see her, telling her that she  _failed_ to free you from her curse?  _Never!_  You are  _not_  allowed to die, you hear me!? I won't die. I won't let you die either. I will finish what mother started and kill this Demon  _so hard_ it'll wish it never lived! So don't you dare give up before I do!  _Don't you dare give up!_ "

Taiyang turned silent. Abruptly his right eye shrunk back to normal again before he gave her a tight smile, and she understood immediately that her father was using every last bit of his energy to buy her time. It was all she needed to feel strength flow into her arms again. She will to do it. She will to find a way to slip pass her father and destroy the gems once and for all.

And yet the situation was not looking good. Already Taiyang was stuttering into a fighting pose, and Yang was forced to run away when the man charged towards her again throwing hit after hit like an unstoppable God of War. The Demon never allowed her to pull far away enough to harass from long range, and in her current condition the neverending attacks wore her down so much she barely had any strength to fight back.  _Is there anything I can exploit?_ Yang thought desperately,  _something that I can use? Maybe I can throw some statues at him –_

Suddenly a barrage resounded throughout the cavern, and Taiyang reeled backwards to howl in pain and surprise. The green clad shadow revealed himself to be a stern-looking Ren as he kept the Master pinned down with automatic fire, giving Yang the opening to fire a barrage of her own before they joined together at the frontline. Words could not begin to describe her relief as she spoke between gunfire, "Thank god you're here. I thought I was going to die."

"I'm glad you're safe. What is wrong with the Master?" Ah, Ren.  _Will it kill you to show me a bit more concern?_  The situation wasn't exactly primes for jabs though, so she motioned towards the central statue and said only what needed to be done,

"Da is possessed by a Demon. We need to destroy the two cores up that statue to kill it."

Ren furrowed his eyebrows into a deep frown, "That's impossible. It's too far away."

Yang grinned easily and said, "With you here, it no longer is. I have a few ideas, but we need to disable Da first."

Ren nodded with a tight expression, "Got it. You make the opening, and I'll get the strike in even if it costs my life."

"Don't say that, Ren," The young man looked up in surprise to hear the sincerity in her voice, "No one will die today. We'll all get out this alive, I promise."

For a moment Ren looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end he swallowed down the words and answered quietly, "Understood. We'll proceed with the plan once both our cartridges are blown."

"Yeah. Let's." Yang did pursue the issue. Maybe in the past she would have provoked the young man needlessly, but she had long since outgrown her childishness. Besides, they had a far important task to accomplish right now.

Failure was not an option.

* * *

The situation above ground was bad.

Fifteen minutes ago, the Xiao Long mansion's outer gates and walls were breached by numerous assailants with no hope of recovery. This was normally impossible: Not only do they possess the high ground, there were at least seventy men on duty with the walls manned and everyone on red alert. Every guard was armed to the teeth, and while they might not seem much with their flimsy jackets, black specs and unruly attitude befitting of thugs and criminals, the Xiao Long guards possessed enough discipline and skill to give even the Kingdom's Military a run for their money. Repelling a bunch of crazed invaders should never have been a problem.

However, they were bogged down by three problems that ultimately cost them their first and strongest line of defense. Number one, the invaders' athletic ability. For example, who in their right minds would expect a baby girl to leap out of her stroller, clear a three meter wall and with her tiny hands strangle a shell-shocked guard to death? It was like being in a B-rated horror movie, except that the zombies could perform quadruple flips in the air or cartwheel the hell out of concentrated gunfire. The men would've laughed themselves silly if they weren't too busy trying to keep their throats from being torn apart.

But considering that they sometimes had the 'honor' to be the Guardians', or even Master Taiyang's warm up fodder, it wasn't exactly hard to deal with these ridiculous acrobatics. The second problem they faced however, was traitors. More accurately speaking, they were referring to allies who had suddenly turned as rabid as the massing invaders and ambushed at least a couple of friendlies before they were finally dealt with. This posed a serious problem to security and was a huge blow to morale since the men were as close as brothers. To be betrayed and shot from the back by your most trusted friend or even family was a pain and terror no one was expecting to endure. With the trust built on years of companionship shredded to pieces for all but the toughest and strongest-willed of men, it didn't take long for some people to start losing their nerves and escape. A few people lost their will to fight completely and simply surrendered themselves to a gruesome death. There were even people who had watched too many zombie movies committing suicide after discovering that they've sustained flesh wounds from the invaders.

And even then the Xiao Long warriors would've been able to pull through, if it wasn't for the fact that the four strongest pillars of the clan; the Three Guardians and the Master themselves were completely missing from action. Obviously, those who were present at the front gate had the scare of their lives to see Yang Xiao Long entering in a tornado of wild, golden fire, and all of the captains of the squads were personally briefed by Ren to defend strategic points of the mansion.

But that was it. Not a single soul – perhaps the servants would know, but they were all sent to the shelters in haste when the terrorism began – had seen Master Taiyang or Nora Valkyrie; both whom were impossible to miss for obvious reasons. Despite the fighting growing more and more intense and allied forces dying everywhere, none of them ever showed up, not even on radio chatter. The guards were trained well enough that they would fight to their deaths. Many of them were strong enough at heart to withstand a betrayal of their own, knowing and accepting that current circumstances were bizarre to say the least.

But without their leaders, without the very pillars who symbolized the weight of the Xiao Long clan, even the toughest and most loyal of men were shaken to the core. Already the newer, more inexperienced recruits were spreading rumors that they've been abandoned for death, and while the core members knew with absolute certainty that the Guardians and Master would never do that, the only other reason they could think for their absence was even more terrifying – that all four of them were either tied up with something so difficult they could not contact anyone, or they're all dead. If even the Master, one of the strongest Huntsmen in the world could not handle this threat, then what could puny ants like them possibly do? That was the last straw, and whatever remaining morale they had before dissipated as quickly as the wind.

And so the Yang family defense line crumbled, and once the fall began it could not be stopped. In no time at all the guards were reduced to less than thirty men, and the once orderly defense line were reduced to small pockets of fighters isolated from each other with no hope of backup. Perhaps the only console they had left was that the radios were still working, but that soon would not matter if the terrible siege continued much longer. They would all die.

* * *

Lie Ren and Yang coordinated themselves so they would empty their clips at exactly the same time, reload, before splitting up left and right to charge towards Taiyang. None of them bothered to check whether the old man had fallen to their fiery barrage – he would not be the Master if he went down so easily.

As the mist of smoke and powder cleared, Taiyang appeared to be crossing his arms in a defensive posture, and although his clothes were burned and in shambles the man himself was perfectly unhurt. As he lowered his arms in abnormal stutter to his sides, Taiyang suddenly arced his neck backwards and let loose a most inhuman and guttural roar of triumph. As the Huntsman had predicted, the Demon's consciousness was seeping into his body at an unbelievable rate, and despite vigorous resistance it wouldn't be long before the takeover was finally complete.

 _Not under our watch!_ Fire rode her path as Yang Xiao Long zoomed in to swing a thunderous right right fist at her father's face, and as she predicted the incredibly obvious move prompted the Demon to raise an elbow in attempt to crush bone against soft flesh. Yang stopped her fist at the last possible second, firing a point blank round at the same time to catch the Demon off guard. The blonde wasted no seconds as it reeled backwards to pull the same trick multiple times more before it finally learned to parry her punches out of the way before they could reach any part of the torso. It was as they had anticipated: Bu Si Mianmight have control over her Da's superior body, but with Taiyang restricting its access to his memories Yang's current level of martial arts was more than enough to suppress the Demon for a short while. As Taiyang threw yet another opening to his daughter, Yang immediately caught on and seized him in a tight bear hug.

"Now!" Yang shouted.

Lie Ren appeared from the shadows, his visage a knot of intense concentration as he slipped in like a ghost from behind to slap a palm towards Taiyang. The Demon noticed the ambush far too late, and the second his palm made contact Taiyang's elbow exploded immediately into a bloody mess. Wasting not a moment Ren immediately repeated the move three times to his remaining three limbs, and finally, invincible as he was, Master Taiyang collapsed onto the ground like a broken doll.

This was Lie Ren's Semblance and ultimate technique – the Qi Strike – a powerful attack that would converge his energy into a single point that would penetrate any physical defense and implode the enemy from within. It could not be blocked unless the enemy employed an Aura defense equal or more powerful than the strike itself, but with Master Yang suppressing his own Aura level to a minimum Lie Ren' technique had cut through like hot knife against butter. The maneuver was obviously risky because he wasn't good enough yet to use it consecutively without spending significant time charging up his Aura, but that was where Yang's distraction came into play. For a first time combination attack against a super boss, Yang reckoned that they scored an A.

"Did we… do it?" Yang dropped down to her knees, breathing heavily as her vision became swarmed with tiny dots. Her role as the flashy bait was no easy part to play, and now that they were finally safe her right hand throbbed clearly as if there's a hammer pounding on it. She had purposely avoided using her left fist to avoid it facing a similar fate, but she seriously couldn't imagine how painful it'd be if she slipped up on any one of her feigned jabs.

"I… think so. Can the Master… talk?" Ren himself looked even worse off than Yang and panted like a patient at his deathbed. That the plan went smoothly was a blessing he didn't forget to thank the gods for, because after healing Nora and executing four Qi Strikes in a row, his Aura was literally seeing the pit.

"… I don't know, but let's just focus on destroying the cores now. He'll talk to us when he needs to," Yang said while looking at her fallen father with unrestrained sadness. Demon possessed or not, they had just completely destroyed his limbs – and by extension, his life as a Huntsman – just to make one hundred percent sure that even if the Demon took control it wouldn't be able to stop them. While he could be treated with Atlas technology and even be whole again by equipping robotic arms and legs, it just… wouldn't be the same. He'd never be the invincible man he was again.

It was with those troubling thoughts lingering around her mind before Yang finally turned around to look at Ren. Everything must wait; they have time to race against, "Okay, let's proceed with the next phase. The way I see it we can either make some platforms, or you boost me over. Take your pick."

Ren simply stared at her as if she's completely out of her mind, "Yang, I'm not Nora and I'm nearly dry."

Yang pouted a little and replied, "Well, start thinking then! We need to act fast. Did you bring some rope with you? Maybe I can find a rock somewhere to hook it on and –"

_Thump._

They felt it. Jumped right back as if someone had dealt them a physical blow.  _I must be dreaming. No matter how powerful a Demon was, no matter how fully in control it was in the host body, it could not possibly control a person's spirit. It could not possible awaken Da's Semblance. Don't be a fool, Yang Xiao Long,_  the blonde laughed to herself nervously even as she backed away inch by inch alongside Ren,  _it's just your imagination. There's no way a Grimm could access a person's Aura; that's against the very law of the world –_

_In one night the entire city was wiped out of all its populace, and the souls of dead men that should've passed on to the world beyond was trapped and forced to exist in the newly created hell forever._

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Yang felt like tearing out her own hair as another shock wave propagated through the entire cavern, this time absolutely unmistakable, "Out of  _all_  the Demons we can fight against we  _had_  to fight one that can manipulate a human's soul? Are you fucking kidding me!?"

"What do you m –"

_Thump._

"I'll use everything I have to boost you over," Ren cut himself short before grabbing Yang by the shoulders, "This is the only way."

"No!" Yang gritted her teeth, "Didn't you say you're nearly dry? The Demon may be stupid, but you won't last five seconds if it unleashes everything Da has. I won't let you die."

"Then you had better come up with something better," Ren said mildly, even though the cold sweat on forehead indicated anything but that, "Because the two of us together can't last five seconds either."

The instant Ren finished talking, the supposedly immobilized Huntsman gave them the scare of their life and jumped back to his feet. With absolute incredulity the duo watched as Taiyang's torn limbs began knitting themselves as if time itself was rewinding, and even as Yang thought to do something about it black flames suddenly emerged from his body to wrap it within a tight, but most likely impentrable barrier. At this rate it won't even take two minutes before the Demon healed completely and set them right back to square one. Yang's mind whirled as she thought faster than she ever did in her whole life. Could they stop him?  _No_. Could they try the same trick?  _No._  Should she listen to Ren and get to the gems first?  _Ren will die._  How much time could Ren buy then?  _Not enough._  How much time could they both buy then? Ten seconds? Five? One?

Could they even survive?

As if to deny her the very last dredges of hope, Ren suddenly flew backwards from a stream of black red fire, the shock wave crashing him against the wall so violent and quick that the agile Huntsman never had a chance to dodge it. As Ren collapsed far away burned and unconscious, Yang could only watched with stiff fear as her father stuttered upright with every broken limb completely regenerated, and his now jet black eyes crying blood as he stared at her as if he could kill with sight alone. She did the only thing she could do. She held up both arms in front of her head in a final act of defiance. In response a gigantic pillar of dark red flames slammed into her guard like a speeding truck, and as Yang screamed as she summoned every bit of golden fire she had left in her body to repel the murderous onslaught. For a couple of seconds, it looked like she might actually be able to weather through the storm.

But then her energy ran out, and her final line of defense flickered and died. There was nothing Yang could do as the heat of death wrapped around the fighter and engulfed her completely.

She closed her eyes.

* * *

A twinge of worry suddenly blossomed inside Nora Valkyrie's heart. Instinctively she turned towards the secret doorway that seemed to breathe out a scentless stench of darkness, but her distraction caused a crazed stranger to rush from her blind side in an attempt to capitalize on the opening. With lightning speed she rolled beneath the assault before pounding the sick bastard into a splatter of meat before growling menacingly. Something wasn't right. Suddenly the game of bug squash wasn't fun anymore, and as time passed the feeling only got worse and worse.  _Ren. I need to find Ren now._ Her decision made, the Viking girl turned to race towards the doorway, only to find it plugged by walls and walls of living meat preventing her entry. The anxiety inside her heart exceeded an unprecedented threshold, and suddenly she felt an explosive burst of livid rage she never felt before in her entire life.

"Get the fuck away from me!" She plowed right through the first three men who tried to crush her with their body, but three more quickly took his place and then some more. Soon, even with her monstrous strength she could not withstand against the sheer amount of weight that was pressing down against her. As she collapsed heavily onto one knee while feeling as sluggish as a sloth, Nora looked towards the endless darkness and screeched a terrible cry,

_"Ren!"_

  
  



	7. Lily Cypress

Death never came.

She had seen too many times Da's Semblance flames at work, a vicious and unforgiving power that could scorch even the toughest substances into mere ashes. This wasn't even the first time Yang had to brave through the terrifying flames either, when her Da had wanted to train her endurance on quite literally set his poor daughter on fire. At the time, even though Da was holding back a huge majority of his strength, the slightest brush against a spark of those dancing flames was enough to cause immeasurable agony, and this time she was completely overwhelmed with not the slightest bit of Aura left to protect her. She expected to feel the same agony, except a million times worse and it scorching every inch of her body until she was burned into nothingness.

But still there was no pain, and for a moment Yang wondered briefly if she had perished so quickly that she didn't feel it in time – that would be best worst case scenario. But since she could still feel her arms and feet, her weary lungs and sweaty neck, the blonde thought that maybe, just maybe, she had miraculously survived. Gingerly she opened her eyes, peeking through her guard to see exactly what saved her from certain death.

"Are you done cowering yet? We have a Demon to kill."

It was a childish voice. It was also a calm, collected tone laced with the springiness of youth. Shades of crimson petals fell unnaturally slow towards the ground as if they were resisting gravity, and before her eyes was a very familiar red cloak fluttering gently in the air, and half a cheek inclined towards her with strong silver eye that shone brilliantly even in the deep darkness. Yang whispered softly, barely able to believe that she wasn't looking at a mirage, "I thought you went away. I thought… I thought you had something to do."

"I do. I told you, didn't I? My duty is to slay Demons," Ruby Rose gave her a thin smile before turning back to glare contemptuously at the enemy, "I felt this one's malice a full mile away from the city, so it took me some time to rush back. What happened to Master Taiyang?"

Yang swallowed some saliva down her dry throat, and looked towards her father. The Demon watched them but did not attack, looking incredibly wary of this strange little human who had dissipated its deadly flames with a single swipe. Knowing they probably didn't have much time, Yang gave Ruby a slightly fuller version of the summary she told Ren. Understandably, Ruby's frown only grew deeper and deeper until she spat out a very un-childlike curse at the end of the story. Yang barely managed to hold back her laughter, even though Ruby was unlikely to notice with her attention fully settled on the Demon,

"So I can't kill that thing because it's just going to possess someone else. I can't destroy its core either because it's apparently invulnerable to everything except your Semblance. The one thing I have that might've worked against it..." Ruby plucked out small hexagonal object shining a brilliant white light, and watched it grew dim abruptly before crumbling into dust, "Well, guess I should stock up more Fusion Dust in the future. These bastards never make it easy, do they?"

"This is my first time dealing with a Demon, but if I have to venture a guess, no." Yang stood up and patted away the dust from her clothes. These were the least of her problems right now, but she needed the routine to keep her head in check. As for Ren… she ran towards her companion and felt his neck. To her utmost relief there was a faint but rhythmic pulse underneath her finger, and as she quickly hid him behind a rock, "Anyway, we need to destroy the core. Think you can boost me up there?"

The young Executioner's face turned expressionless and cool, "Sure thing, but why can't you get up there yourself?"

Yang opened her arms with a sarcastic shrug, "Oh let's see. I broke my fist, I'm sore all over the place, I nearly got annihilated by a point blank explosion and I'm completely drained of Aura. Which pick do you prefer?"

"Then how can you destroy the core then if you're this exhausted? I won't be surprised if it has a self-defense mechanism too. Do you think you can handle it the way you are?"

"Uh – well maybe not, but –" Yang looked taken aback by her incredibly cold demeanor, but what Ruby said later caught her completely off guard, "In that case I don't see the need to waste my energy or expose myself to the Demon. Worst case scenario you're gonna fall to your death before you even reach that statue, and I'll be too distracted trying to save you before getting killed myself. No, I have a better plan. I'll kill the Demon right now and force it to possess a more manageable body. That will make out jobs far easier."

"Wh –" Before Yang realized it she was grabbing Ruby by the collar before exploding, "How can you say that!? That's my Da, and we're going to save him no matter what!"

But the Ruby before her was like a completely different person. The brunette slapped her wrist away harshly – once again shocking Yang into silence – before speaking in a cold and unfeeling tone, "For every second we waste we tread closer towards destruction, although to be frank I don't really care happens to other people. I'm here just to kill a Demon, and while I do owe Master Taiyang a great debt, I'm sure that death will be far preferable than to have his soul manipulated by a monster."

"Why you insufferable little – !" Abruptly Yang found herself flying backwards before crashing painfully into the sharp edge of a wall, and as she wheezed breathlessly on the ground Ruby once again spoke up,

"Just so we're clear, Yang Xiao Long. My life's purpose is to eliminate every single Demon that ever existed from Remnant, and I will do  _anything_  to see it happen. That means not following a suicidal plan that will get me killed before I see the end of my goal. Therefore I will kill your Demon possessed father. Then I will imprison the next host it tries to possess, although depending on how much time we have left I may have to kill all its hosts until the core is destroyed. It is cruel, but it is something that has to be done.

In the mean time you will recuperate your strength, and I will protect you until you're fit to fight. Then I will find an opening to boost you up there and cover you until you destroy the core. In the worst case scenario, if you fail or die before the objective is complete, then I will leave a message for The Order to clean up the mess. It will expose me, but it is an acceptable trade for this ancient Demon's death," the possessed Taiyang finally looked to make a move and sauntered slowly towards Ruby,

"I believe that's the gist of it. Now go and hide with Ren. Of course, you're free to ignore me and do whatever you want, but for every second you dawdle more people are going to die. One or many? It's your choice."

Abruptly, the red-plated rifle in Ruby Rose's hands underwent a bizarre transformation. The tail of the weapon ejected with a hiss and snap to form a thin black handle, and the frontal head ejected unfolded and swung outwards to reveal two closely intertwined circular blades of rose red, black-trimmed frame. Even in her daze Yang could make it out to be the first and biggest war scythe she has ever seen, and it easily doubled Ruby's height in length and likely thrice as heavy. That wasn't all there's to it either – the once compact center of the gun revealed itself to be the gun barrel of a high caliber sniper rifle. This was the true form of Crescent Rose. This was the magnificent murder weapon Ruby chose to reveal for the sole purpose of slaying the greatest Grimm. With practiced ease, Ruby Rose swung the sniper-scythe around in a warm up twirl before slamming the tip of her blades deep into the ground, just as the Demon has finished healing and set its jet black eyes onto her, contempt and hatred burning within. Ruby sneered equally in return, and readied herself for a thunderous charge.

Then, she felt a strong hand grabbed tightly onto her shoulders.

"No."

* * *

Eight years ago, Yang Xiao Long had a friend.

At the time Ren and Nora had miraculously gotten along with each other, and since then the wild, mischievous girl found it increasingly hard to play a prank on either child. Not only do they always hanged around each other, the bizarre duo also seemed to have developed a sixth sense that even if she managed to separate them to 'divide and conquer', the other partner would always rush in far too quickly for her to capitalize on it. Also… there was that accident. It made her very hesitant to try anything even remotely dangerous, and every time she tried to play a prank on the duo she'd inevitably remember the accident and felt really bad. Eventually she decided to give up on the duo, and decided that she would find someone more 'competent' who could suffer through her prank's consequences safely. If a prank's not harmful, then no matter how dangerous it gets it's just fun, right?

Yes, at the age of nine little Yang was quite the rebellious devil queen, and not even her parents could do much about it. So it was on a day of infinite boredom Yang decided that enough was enough, and that she absolutely needed to make a new friend to do devious things with. Armed with impure desires the cheery girl easily slipped past the guards and went out to the busy streets of Jiu Xu to scout out her prey. She had chosen to wear a tomboyish outfit of a short black pants, simple white T-shirt and yellow leather jacket for the occasion. A cap was handy when she needed to escape for whatever reason just because her golden hair was so obvious, but the mere thought of damaging her precious locks was enough to offset the idea. If you can't outrun them, beating them up was always an option. Even at her young age, her skills and Aura were already strong enough to take down anyone except an actual Huntsmen, and there was of course no threat of Grimm inside a city.

As little Yang walked aimlessly amidst the crowd, the young girl scanned the busy flow of people with childlike curiosity. It was a Saturday afternoon, so as expected there was an incredible amount of people going about for a good lunch or cheer or both. Both the common and the wealthy ran thick on the cobblestone, with an unending stream of vehicles lining up on both ways of the streets traveling slower than a snail. Little Yang never quite understood the point of cars – she would rather take one of Da's kick as a mode of travel than be bored to death in those metal coffins. Hawkers were yelling, customers were bargaining furiously, and pedestrians crossed the streets with equal fucks given to both drivers and the road safety laws, which is to say none at all. She hid behind a dustbin and peeked into the back alleys and voila! There a bunch of her men smoking and doing god-knows-what amidst the shadows. Yep, these were the streets she came to know everyday alright.

As little Yang looked around, something suddenly caught her attention like a hook. She was a fragile-looking girl about the same age with dark smooth hair, and she wore a sleeveless, one piece dress of pure white color reaching down to the knees. Her bunny sandals looked especially cute. When the mysterious girl finally noticed her stare, little Yang was stunned by the most brilliant golden eyes she had ever seen.

"Sunflowers," The blonde whispered as she took a step towards the beautiful girl, and then another. Then, the young girl's abruptly swung her head to look left and right before running with unbelievable speed into the thick, endless swarm of people.

…  _Wait a minute. What the hell?_ It took little Yang a full second before she finally regained her wits, and when she did the blonde found herself running right after the escaping girl's back. Little Yang felt an unknown joy blooming from inside her heart, and with every wind in her lungs she screamed loud enough to burst an entire crowd of eardrums, "You there! Stop! Don't you dare run away from me!"

As the curses and explosions and frantic curses of complete innocents began, somewhere, someone sneezed repeatedly in his private studies and wondered what kind of trouble his daughter had gotten into again.

* * *

"Hah, hah, hah, hah…!"

"Ha…! Ha…!"

The mad game of chase went on for a full hour, and during that entire length of time little Yang had smashed through five cars, crashed through tens of glass windows, and generally wrecked enough havoc to warrant an unearthly screech from both the community and a certain poor father's wallet. Though of course little Yang could care less about them at the moment and was focused entirely on this fascinating young girl who had somehow managed to outpace her for the entire length of an hour. In fact, if it wasn't for her familiarity with the streets and near infinite endurance, she would have lost the girl a long time ago.

And so that was how the two girls came to be at this little playground, wheezing in and out precious oxygen with little Yang clenching an iron hold onto her escapee's wrist and the latter pulling in a futile attempt to escape.

"You're… pretty good, girl! That's… the first time anyone… can outrun me so… long!" little Yang wheezed.

"What do you want?" The girl rushed out the words before gasping for breath, "Please…! I have no… money! Nothing!"

"Wha?" little Yang cocked her head questioningly, "Why the hell would I want your cash?"

"Huh? But then why… are you… chasing…?" the girl looked at her with eyes filled with confusion.

"Eh, that's because I want you to be my new vi – I mean, friend!" little Yang laughed out loud, "Your eyes are real pretty, so I want to talk to you! Or at least I tried to, until you ran away like some rabbit – speaking of which, why did you?"

"That's – that's because you look like you're going to… eat +me or something," the timid girl suddenly broke into tears, "Your eyes are all red and it looks so scary!"

Oh. Oops. Her father had told the blonde girl repeatedly to keep her Semblance under control in public, but little Yang was still too young to understand the consequences or the need for restraint, so whenever she got excited her eyes would easily color over to burning red. But hey, at least her hair wasn't on fire, right? Right! Now then, what should she do before this kid flooded this whole place with her tears?

"Who said my eyes were red, huh? They're violet! Light purple, see?" little Yang said innocently while emphasizing them with rapid blinking, "Are you sure you aren't seeing things? I'm not scary, and I'm really,  _really_ hurt that you would say that!"

"Of course they're – huh? But – but I'm sure they're red! How did you…?" The young girl soon forgot crying completely and was staring right into little Yang's eyes with piercing curiosity. The blonde's breath became caught momentarily at her throat – the girl sure was one to talk, when her own pair of sunflowers held a charm that seemed to suck in the very soul. Deciding it was time to avert the topic, little Yang smacked both hands onto the girl's delicate shoulders, eliciting from her a satisfying squeak before saying, "Never mind the boring details! Anyway, what is your name, girl?"

"Uh…" she hesitated a little before saying, "Lily. My name's Lily… Lily Cypress."

"Huh. That's a fairly strange name; you from the outside?" Little Yang asked.

"Y – yeah. Outside. Somewhere to the… east," Hmm, she's twirling her hair unconsciously. Could mean a lie, but it wasn't something to be bothered about,

"Well, whatever. So, back to my friend request! Will you like to be my friend, Lily? I promise you it'll be a lot of fun!" little Yang grinned widely.

"Friends?" The girl stared at her with bafflement, "But why? I don't even know you!"

"Little princess, that is  _exactly_ why you make friends, because we don't know each other! Anyway, I needed someone to play pr – games with, and I choose you! So, waddaya think?" little Yang said smoothly.

"I… I don't know," the girl said uncertainly. Little Yang was somewhat surprised she didn't bring up her parents as an excuse – that happened ninety nine percent of the time when she asked any of her previous 'friends' out – but sensing that her victim was about to bite the bait, the blonde girl decided to ignore any potentially unfavorable response and just jump the gun. Without waiting for a response, little Yang pulled at Lily's arms before dragging her towards the playground, laughing,

"I knew you would accept! From today onwards we are friends, my dear friend! Now, let's go to the swing and do some bonding right away –"

"Wait, wait! I haven't said anything yet!" Lily frantically tried to pull away, but while she was fast Yang was strong as a baby elephant, "What's bonding? It sounds really weird! I don't even know your name!"

"Oh right! Silly me. The name's Yang, Yang Xiao Long! And don't you dare forget my name, or else –" Her iris burned red for a second, and Lily froze like a drenched puppy, "You might, ah,  _hallucinate_  something unpleasant. That's an adult word I just used eh? Eh? Anyway let's not waste anymore time and onwards! To the  _super rotating fans of death_  – I mean, the very, very normal swings!"

"What did you just say? I'm not good with swings; I get dizzy with swings very quickly so can we go somewhere else? Please – _Noooooo!?_ "

Her pleading fell on deaf ears. Later, the playground would be plagued by haunted rumors, telling the tale of a cruel monster cackling with flames steaming out of its head and its poor captive screaming with unbridled terror, never to be saved unto the end of eternity. In reality, it was the exact opposite. On that day, even though Yang hadn't realized it yet, the cowardly girl would turn out to be her truest friend who supported her at the worst of times and gradually changed her for the better. Without her, the girl called Yang Xiao Long might have been defeated by a loneliness and fear she could not explain, and eventually became irreversibly bitter towards life.

* * *

"Yang… I don't think this is a good idea…"

Two years after the day they first met, Yang took her new friend to the Xiao Long residence. This was generally a frowned upon idea, because only a handful of proven outsiders were allowed to enter the Xiao Long mansion. Anyone who did this without proper permission from their superiors would be punished most severely.

On the other hand, Yang Xiao Long had a knack for ignoring the rules whenever convenient, so when she pulled the 11 years old girl by the hand to the front gate, she did so with complete disregard of either Lily's pleading gaze or the three guardsmen who immediately walked up to them, "Good morning, Miss Yang. And hello! Who is this cute little lady we have here?"

Understandably, the guards were not exactly the kindest-looking of people. In fact they were chosen not only for their experience but also how ugly and threatening they looked, although of course this particular requirement was kept under tight wraps. Upon seeing the terrifying-looking men the timid girl immediately hid behind Yang's back as the blonde replied cheerfully, "Hey guys! She's my friend Lily, and I'm taking her in for a tour around the place!"

The younger man of the group said hesitantly, "Miss, I'm afraid we can't allow that. No outsiders are allowed to enter unless given permission from the higher ups."

"Well, I'm my Da's daughter, aren't I? Are you saying that I don't have the permission to decide who gets to visit my own house?" she responded innocently with a sun-lit smile, but it was impossible not to see the devil's horn peeking out of its head. Lily winced in sympathy as the youngster grew incredibly flustered, and thankfully one of the older-looking guards sighed and stepped up to relieve him,

"Miss Yang, you know we don't want to do this – especially not with you, like seriously – but rules are rules, and while you're the Master's daughter we are not. He'll punish us very severely for breaking it."

"Like I care. Why don't you just die for me?" Yang said cheerfully as everyone literally turned to stone upon hearing the unbelievable words flying out from her mouth. Upon seeing their frozen visages, Yang sighed dramatically and said, "Oh c'mon, it was just a joke. So I can't bring a person into the house, I get it. However! You have to understand that this girl –" Abruptly Lily found herself lifted to the air by the waist, and she could not help but gave a terrified squeak, "– this  _thing_  here is my  _property._  I  _own_  her, and I'm very sure I can bring  _things_ that I  _own_  into my own house. That ain't breaking the rule now, yeah?"

"I am not  _property!_  You let me down right now, Yang!"

"… Haah. Whatever you say, Miss. Go on." The trio surrendered without further resistance; it's not like they could ever change her mind anyway; only the Master and the Mistress could do that. As the gates swung inwards, the wild girl finally put Lily down before dragging her in with a wide grin on her face. Lily looked annoyed but couldn't hide a red tint on her cheeks, and as they trekked slowly towards the mansion on the center of the main pathway, Yang said cheerily,

"See? Told'cha everything's gonna be fine!"

"It is  _not_ fine, Yang. What if they really get punished?" For all her fragile looks Lily was surprisingly opinionated, and sometimes when pushed too far she would explode in righteous opinions that had her Yang apologizing profusely like a meek little mouse. Yang didn't mind it, and in fact she was delighted to see that her attempts to 'rehabilitate' the timid girl finally working,

"Eh, it's just a joke. They'll live through it. And it's not like my punishment is going to be any better than theirs; they should be thrilled Da never asks them to stand still and eat one of his punches."

"What do you mean?"

Yang said with unusual seriousness etched on her face, "My Da's very strong, you know. Once I did something really bad, and as punishment he had me stand at the center of the training ground before punching me ten streets across the sky.  _It was awesome._ "

"You're joking," Lily shook her head.

"Why would I joke about being hit? I'm being very serious.  _Dead_ serious."

"I don't believe you," Lily shook her head even harder, and Yang found herself just unable to resist another round of teasing. Her hold on Lily's wrist tightened, and the girl's eyes widened in fear about what's about to happen next.

"Hey Lily~ Guess what my Da does to intruders when they have the ah,  _fortune_  to stumble into him?"

Said girl's head was swinging fast enough to rival a fan's medium speed, "Don't wanna don't wanna don't wanna –"

Letting go of Lily's wrist, the blonde instead grabbed hold of the girl's cheeks and stopped her head in mid-swing (Please do not try this at home, or anywhere for the matter). The pleading, puppy expression only spurred Yang to tease Lily further as she whispered, "Da  _skinned_  them all. First, he would dump them into boiling water so that the skin would come off by its own.  _Pssahh!_ And then, one by one, starting from the fingers, he would peel –"

Suddenly, a new voice rang out, "– Master Taiyang is not that sort of person. Maybe he will fling an offender across the streets, but he would never torture an enemy. Stop scaring the poor girl, Xiao Long."

 _"Aah?"_  She hated it when people call her by her surname. Almost immediately Yang spun around to face the newcomer whom she only knew too well, as Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie walked up towards them. Even at this age the frowning boy was already a fan of the chang shan, a black traditional long shirt paired with white long pants stretching to the ankles. It had always been a subject of disdain for Yang as a person who preferred the latest fashion. On the other hand Nora dressed a lot more normal, although it was rare for strangers to notice her true gender with that tomboyish haircut, baggy T-shirt and short pants. That would change in about a year, but it was a story better told by a more suitable person.

It had been 2 years since that terrible accident, but Yang's relationship with Ren had remained as awkward as ever. The duo might live in the same home, but they were about as close as distant relatives, speaking to each other only when absolutely necessary. As of late their relationship unfortunately took a turn for the worse since Ren grew a lot more outspoken when he hit puberty, and Yang was never one to back down from an argument even if she knew she was in the wrong. Things would've turned ugly much earlier if Nora wasn't there to stop them, but because of that they too were never able to forget that terrible accident born from their conflict that ultimately cost her her voice. It was a lie that time would wash away all wounds. Seeing the mute girl waving excited hand gestures at her, Yang returned a stiff, fake smile and wondered if she was going to live under her guilt's shadow forever.

Lily was hiding behind Yang again, but had poked out her head in curiosity to watch the strange atmosphere that was brewing between the trio. Yang ignored her friend's antics and instead narrowed her eyes at the two partners, "It's just a little joke. Besides, she's my friend and that's none of your business anyway."

"Speaking from experience, I wouldn't say that I fully appreciate what it means to be your friend or the butt end of your jokes. Bullying, I think, is definitely not a friendly act," Lie Ren replied coolly.

"Mind your own fucking business, shithead!" Yang shouted right back with unrestrained impulse, "As if a  _killer_  like you have the right to say that!"

The moment she said that she knew she made a terrible mistake. In an instant the light in Ren's eyes darkened into a cold, murderous fury, and the young boy drew his brand new dual pistols from his sleeves to point it at Yang and seethed, "How  _dare_ you."

Yang took a step back with her hands raised while saying hesitantly, "Ren, calm down, I'm sorry, I didn't mean –"

A streak of green light brushed past her cheek, freezing the girl right at her tracks as she touched a hand to the skin and saw blood. Lily let out a short-pitched scream as her fingers tightened into painful claws around Yang's waist, and Nora immediately tried to force down the weapon with obvious alarm. However, the grudge seemed to have been brewing inside the young boy for far too long, as he lost all semblance of control and going so far as to push Nora violently to the ground, "Out of all the people you are the only one who don't deserve to say that. Draw your weapon, because if you don't I'm going to shoot you anyway like the dog you are."

Yang could not ignore the insult. In a heartbeat her violet burned red with anger, and without a word she activated her shotgun gauntlets immediately and was ready to dive right in to teach the motherfucker a lesson. At the last second though, Lily's grip on her waist suddenly increased tenfold as the girl pulled her back while screeching, "What the hell are you doing!? Stop it!"

"Move away, Lily," Yang said steely without the slightest hint of emotion in her tone. In her mind Ren was already a dead man, "If he wants a fight he's going to get it. This has been coming a long way anyway, so I'm going to settle this once and for all."

"This isn't right!" Lily hissed out rapidly, "I don't know what happened between you two, but killing each other is definitely not the right answer to this!"

"You don't know anything," Yang retorted as she tried to push past the girl, "Fuck  _off._ This is between me and him."

"Too scared to fight, Xiao Long?" Lie Ren taunted with scornful eyes, "I always thought you are a big-mouthed coward anyway."

"Just keep talking, Ren," Yang said through gritted teeth as she finally dislodged the struggling girl and shoved her aside. Immediately the young boy tensed up with his guns trained right at her heart and face – Yang Xiao Long may be a bitch who deserved to die, but it was undeniable she was as strong as an ox, "I'm not just going to hurt you, I'm going to  _kill_  you, so you better make your last words are –"

_**"Would the two of you just shut the fuck UP!?"** _

The sudden outburst stunned the two combatants for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough time for Lily to squeeze right between them like a human shield. Before anyone could say a thing the young girl abruptly spun around to walked up towards Lie Ren with a face of pure, livid anger, "Lie Ren, is it? Good morning sir, and you are a massive, stupid, dickhead of a mother fucking  _idiot_ , you hear me?"

Yang snorted aloud at the completely unexpected outburst, and the young boy's eyes cooled into ice as he started to speak. But Lily cut him off right away like a streak of thunder, "No,  _you_  shut the hell up and look around you, you hotheaded numbskull. You aren't the only people around this area, and there are plenty of innocent people who might get hurt just because you couldn't hold in your stupid grudge!"

The young girl pointed a finger towards her left, and sure enough there were a whole bunch of servants and guards surrounding them, obviously frightened and unsettled by the horrible commotion. For a moment Lie Ren looked unsure, but he steeled himself again and retorted, "So? It's not like I can stop them from gathering. If they got hurt then it's their own fault."

"Oh really? Then I'm sure you won't mind if that girl of yours getting hurt then," Lily stated in the chilliest voice Yang ever heard from the girl, "She seems ready to stop you even if it means getting shot in the face. Do you want that?"

The boy's face flushed white as if he had only just remembered about Nora, and as he turned around he saw exactly what she meant. Nora's elbows and knees sported fresh bruises due to no other but himself, and her face had the deathly white look of an overstrained patient. Still she had pulled out her war hammer with shaky limbs, looking determined to intervene the second a fight erupted between Ren and Yang. His anger all but forgotten, Ren immediately rushed to Nora's side and supported her with his arms just in time before she lost balance and collapsed because of the extended weapon's weight. Ren turned back to glare at Yang once, then bowed his head, and just like that the deadly duel ended before it even started as Ren ushered Nora away.

By now Yang Xiao Long has already retracted her gauntlets as Lily turned around and strode wordlessly towards her. The blonde girl smiled as she small-clapped and said, "Damn, Lily, you sure got him good there! I never thought –"

She had perhaps seen the slap coming before Lily had even confronted Lie Ren. The revelation hadn't make the slap any less painful or shocking, and she certainly wasn't prepared to see the stream of tears pouring down her friend's cheeks with undisguised sadness and disappointment. The young girl stared directly into the shocked violet eyes, and whispered softly,

"You're right, Yang. I don't know anything. I'm just an outsider, and I absolutely have no rights to interfere with your family affairs. Still, I thought you'd be smarter than this. I thought you won't let your stupid  _pride_  get into your head. But you did, and I –"

For a long while the young girl simply stood there, mouth opening and closing as if trying to find the right words to describe the turmoil of emotions. In the end, she opted for some simple words, and ran away towards the distance. It was a nightmare that would keep Yang awake for many sleepless nights and haunt her in her worst dreams for the rest of her life.

_"I'm disappointed. I thought you're better than this."_

That was another pivotal turning point in Yang's life. While she would eventually make up with Lily, searching house after house for the missing girl until she finally found her; and even reconciled with Ren after she invited him to one of the most awkward sit-downs they ever had in their lives. But still Yang would never forget this day for as long as she lived.

It was a day when Yang Xiao Long learned a lesson in humility. It was the day she had known true shame and became a more thoughtful and caring human being.

* * *

"Lily? Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Ah, I'm all right, don't worry."

"Right, and I'm a skunk eating cannibal who couldn't be bothered to take a bath. Tell me: What's eating you?"

"… That's one h-hell of a metaphor, Yang."

"I can't believe you still stutter whenever you say a profanity. It makes it so fun to watch though when you explode on a stupid guy who thought you're innocent and cute."

"Yang!"

The fiery girl smirked, but did not hide away the clear concern and worry etched upon her features. It had been four years since they had become friends with each other, and the time they spent together were more precious than any kind of wealth in this world. There were days they spent laughing like a hyena at an exploded bar (well, okay, only Yang while the Lily sweated buckets of terror hoping they wouldn't get caught), there were days where they spent talking the whole day while doing nothing at all, there were even days where they cried together in sadness and misery, like the day when her mother passed away with a peaceful smile on her bed. After all this time, Yang simply could not even imagine a day spent without her best friend – her  _sister_  – by her side, living and braving tomorrow together with a smile on their faces.

Today was a bad day though. It's not as if she had never seen the young girl having mood swings; sometimes Lily could become so depressed that even Yang's funniest jokes could not cheer her up. This was apparently one of those days; if not the worst Yang had seen her so far. It did not help that Lily's eyes had a faraway, distant look in them that made her already fragile appearance look even more transient; as if she was going to disappear any second.  _What am I thinking? Of course that ain't gonna happen,_ Yang forcefully shook the dark thoughts away. At least she had an inkling as to what made her friend so unhappy – every time the golden-eyed girl came back from 'home' she always looked a little sad. It made Yang felt angry just thinking about it.

They now sat at the swings of a quiet old playground; the place where they first met each other while enjoying the caressing touch of the wind. Lily pushed herself back lightly while Yang did the opposite; unconsciously trying to match her friend's pace. After a long while Lily combed her hair while looking gloomily towards the sky. It was a sign that the girl was finally ready to speak.

"Yang… do you believe in miracles?"

"I do," Yang replied so quickly that earned it her friend's eyebrow. The blonde shrugged a shoulder and continued, "Can't be a daredevil if you don't pray now and then for something to get you through the harder times."

Lily gave her a half-scornful look, "Riiiight. Remember the countless times I had to save your ass? They're all just miracles from the gods, because of course they are!"

"You don't need to say it so sarcastically, geez, that was almost as bad as Ren," Yang winced, "And of course I'm thankful! Without you, I'd have gotten caught countless times already, not to mention a lousier person than I am now."  _So in a way of speaking,_ you  _are my miracle._  She didn't say it aloud though; it was just way too embarrassing.

"Great to see you still have some gratitude in you," Lily smirked at the hasty response, and Yang muttered a grumble under her breath; she couldn't believe how the tables had turned since two years ago. It was understandable though. Her friend has grown so much as a person that she could scarcely recognized the cowardly little girl she first met on the streets.

Lily sighed as she hid her face behind her hair, "To be honest, Yang? I'm the one who should be thanking you. Without you by my side, I would never have been able to enjoy life as a normal girl. Would never have known what it means to be happy. Alone, I would've lost sight of myself and become something… less. You know what I mean. I'm sure you've noticed that I'm not exactly…normal."

"Nonsense," Yang replied, "I can't say the same for everyone I know, but I sure don't think there's anything wrong with you. You are as normal as a person can ever be."

Lily smiled, and placed a hand at her heart, "Thank you, Yang, but you know that's not what I meant. I…" she looked unsure. Hesitant. Lips and eyebrows tightened into a dark frown, "I want to tell you this. You've always been honest to me, and it's only right that I do the same. At first I was scared that it'll put you in danger, but I understand now that's it is just my cowardice speaking. You have to know now, there's no more time, and I…" the ramble made no sense whatsoever to the blonde, but what Lily said next pierced right through her heart, "I'm leaving today, Yang. I'm afraid that I'm never going to come back."

Yang felt as if a thick blanket had wrapped itself over her throat,  _"What?"_

Lily ignored her and pushed on, "I'll start from the beginning. To begin with, I am not human – no longer one anyway. When I was just five years old, I died in a car accident."

"O… kay," Yang couldn't keep the incredulity away from her voice, "Lily, you know I trust you, but this is a little..."

"I am being very serious," Lily cut her off firmly with a tone of gravity that Yang had never heard before from her friend, "Yang, I was  _dead._  It's surprising that the memories are so clear, but I remember sitting in a car with my family, talking about dinner as my dad drove us home through a mountain path. Something happened along the way, something bad – I never knew what it was – that caused the car to go out of control, and we crashed right down a canyon. Everyone died. I died. It was sad, but I should've just been another statistic in the morgue; end of story.

But then, something happened to me. It's hard to describe, because just how do you describe being dead anyway? One second I was nothing, and then the next I was suddenly  _aware_  that I was  _dragged_  against my will by  _something_  towards  _somewhere_  that felt completely and utterly wrong, but no matter how I struggled I just could not break free. There was light, I broke through the surface, and just like that I was back in the world of living again, breathing and heaving out the contents of my stomach like I had just swallowed the most disgusting shit in the world."

Lily stared towards the distance with a dazed look, and the blonde took care not to disturb her. The entire story felt fucking surreal of course; her friend who was supposed to be dead coming back to life and all, but she believed Lily, so she memorized every word she said like they're made of diamonds. It was the only thing she could do right now.

"When I regained enough of my senses, I saw a woman. Remember this, Yang. She had black hair curling down her breast, with strange lines tattooed on her body that burned with an eerie light. Fire burned within her eyes, and they glow a piercing yellow even amidst the darkest black. She is a predator, a monster. She is the one who revived me from death, Yang, and her name is  **Cinder Fall.**  Do not forget her name, but do not ever speak to anyone about this, or you will be in grave danger. If you run into her, run away as far as you can. Never fight her unless you have absolutely no choice, and lastly never trust her. Can you promise me this, Yang?"

Lily glared at Yang with such intensity that the blonde could only nod meekly, but truth be told, as compared to tales of an outlandish enemy she had never seen before, Yang was actually more distracted by Lily's eloquent, almost adult way of speech. Even though Yang has always thought herself to be the older one out of them both, but who was the mature, and who was the really immature? Had Lily simply been playing the fool and tolerated her all this long?

Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Lily's eyes abruptly widened before she held Yang's hands and spoke softly, "Oh no. Oh,  _no._  Our time together is genuine, Yang. I was never a sociable person even before I died, and after I revived an evil witch and her cronies aren't exactly the best people to converse with. Please believe me when I say that I never pretended to be anything else but myself when I'm with you."

"I'm not doubting you, Lily," Yang forced out a laugh in attempt to abate her friend's worries, "It's just that, I just realized that there's so many things I don't know about you, you know? Every time you go 'home' it's to meet that monster, isn't it? I just feel so… ashamed, I never even tried to check –"

Abruptly Yang found herself in a tight embrace and Lily shaking like a leaf, saying, "Yang, you and I both know that you didn't pry into my past because you care about my feelings. This is not your fault, it was never your fault. If it wasn't for you, I might have turned into a monster. I would have forgotten what it meant to be happy, what it meant to be truly alive. You are my friend – my one and only true friend, and that is the one thing that will never, ever change. Never."

"Me too, Lily. Me too," The blonde hugged her friend back tightly, and for some reason her eyes began to water, as if she knew deep down her heart that their time was now up. She refused to acknowledge it. But a bolt of thunder split the skies with a deafening roar, and Lily jerked away and hissed out with a ferocious look of anger Yang had never seen before, "Why is she here? It isn't time yet!"

"Who's she? What's going on?" Yang stood up from the swing and glanced warily at her surroundings. Something felt wrong; as if the home that she knew as well as the back of her hand was suddenly different. Even with the looming storm it was incredibly strange not to see a single soul anywhere that it was just half past six. Something was coming.

"We don't have much time left so I'll cut this short. I'm sorry, but I've stolen the Final Sun from the secret room. I'd imagine that Master Taiyang would be incredibly pissed right now."

"What? Wait a sec – you  _what?"_

The Final Sun was an ancient relic as old as the very First Grimm War, and the artifact was said to be one of the few Dust constructs that played a critical role in pushing mankind towards victory against the terrifying Grimm. Nobody knew how the artifact worked now, even though all the leaders agreed that it must be protected from the Grimm at all costs, and Master Taiyang was apparently the chosen candidate to safeguard the relic. Not even Yang herself had seen the Final Sun before, the relic stored safely inside a twenty inch wide Dust-protected metal box and hidden in a secret room that could only be accessed through Master Taiyang's own bedroom. Not even an army could pry the artifact from Da's hands, much less any one person. But Lily claimed that she had stolen it, and Yang believed her, since she immediately recalled the set of skills Lily displayed to save their lives from a fatal trap. She just didn't know why she did it.

Out of nowhere, Lily pulled out a short pair of transparent, crystal-like blades and crossed them firmly towards the ground. Half a meter long and glowing vibrantly with white light, Yang would've felt a hint of admiration if she wasn't feeling so tensed by a sense of imminent dread that just kept piling at their direction. It had an eerie quality that made every hair on her skin stand like a porcupine's quill.

"I have no choice. Cinder, the witch I talked to you about, had originally planned to take it away by force right after Mistress Lia passed away. While Master Taiyang might be able to defeat her by himself, he was heartbroken at the time, and with her 2 other lesser cohorts they could kill him  _and_  take the relic for themselves. I managed to convince her to do things more discreetly and let me, the spy who knows the Xiao Long mansion inside out, steal it. I've been trying to delay the inevitable since, but today is the last straw."

Lily glanced down on the ground and said softly, "I'm sorry, Yang. Our meeting wasn't exactly a coincidence. Certainly I didn't expect to run into you that soon, but I… I was here that day to find a way to draw your attention. To gain your trust. To lie to you and –"

"Stuff it, Lily," Yang waved a careless hand and while concentrating on their surroundings, "Just tell me one simple thing: Am I your friend?"

"Of course you are! But I –"

"Then stuff it. I trust you, and I believe you're not spying on me out of your own free will. Just, what do you plan to do with the relic? Should I know where you've hidden it?"

"I don't plan to use it; I just moved it to a different location. They can't use what they can't find. If you ever have a need for it though, remember to search the place where no shadows are cast –"

"Ah… so here's where you've been hiding all day. I should've known that you're a  _traitor._ "

They looked towards a feminine shadow walking towards them from the right center of the street. Instantly Yang understood that this dark-skinned woman was the threat she was looking for; the evil bitch that was going to snatch Lily away to a terrible place. She was a thin, well-tanned woman with red eyes and an annoying smirk hanging off her face. Her hair is a light pea green cut with a straight fringe and bangs with two long locks flowing on each side. The woman also wore a rather revealing white and dark green outfit that revealed her midriff and the top part of her breast, but there was no one to admire it and certainly not the girls who looked paler for every step she took. By now the invisible pressure – she understood now that to be killing intent – was so powerful that Yang felt like she could puke out her lunch, breakfast and last night's dinner if there's any left in her stomach, but still she put on a brave face and stood protectively in front of Lily,

"Who the hell are you?"

The woman turned to look at Yang with that infuriating smile of hers, and the moment they matched eyes all the sudden the blonde girl felt as if the world was tumbling from underneath her feet. Before the strange sensation could continue to spiral out of control though, Yang felt a firm hand pulling her back from the shoulders that instantly broke the strange vertigo. Lily stepped forwards and raised a blade towards the strange woman,

"Why are you here, Emerald? This is not the time we've agreed on."

"And why should I keep a promise with a traitor? Granted, I would've done it anyway if only to see you get mad," Emerald touched a palm to the shoulder mockingly, before her face suddenly twisted into unbridled anger, "Know your place, you fucking  _corpse._  How dare you break Cinder's trust?"

"Who the fuck are you calling a corpse?!" Yang leaped forwards in anger with fists already in mid-swing, but Lily pulled her right back with surprising strength before whispering, "Yang, get out of here now."

"What? No fucking way! C'mon, we can take her together –"

 _"Listen,_  Yang!" Lily tightened her grip on her arms, and Yang abruptly realized just how cold her friend was. She's  _terrified._  But still her friend put on a brave face and said forcefully, "You have to go! I'm on equal footing with Emerald, and while she has a lot more combat experience than I do I can run very,  _very_  well, so you don't need to worry about me! No – listen, we  _can't_  win, and the last thing I want to see is Emerald using you as a hostage, or worse! So run!"

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter, little girls. I'm sure Cinder will like to have a very interesting chat with both of you."

The silky voice came from right beside Yang's left ear, and just as the blonde jerked away Lily immediately stabbed directly at Emerald's head, only to see the blade pass through nothing but thin air.  _A mirage,_  Yang thought to herself as she scrambled to regain her balance. She was about to fire a shot at the prancing snake, but once again Lily pushed her towards the streets and yelled,

"Yang, go home now! your Da would've had men scouring all over the place for me! No one will dare to attack the Xiao Long residence tonight!"

"Oh, I just  _love_  how you keep belittling my abilities," There was a crack of thunder, and the ground between Yang and Lily exploded in a sizzling flash of light and fire. Yang felt her face scrapped hard against asphalt, but she couldn't care less about her own injuries and quickly looked towards Lily's direction. Yang felt her heartbeat stop to see Lily's entire right hand burned as black as sin, as one of her blades clattered uselessly on the ground. Yang grounded her fist, stared hatefully at the smirking Emerald and charged towards the bitch despite Lily's desperate warnings. She was not going to back down until she punched the woman bloody –

Abruptly there was a brilliant flash of light, and both Yang and Emerald stopped in mid-stride to stare at Lily shining like an angel of light. Her friend said coldly, "You forget yourself, Emerald. I may be young and inexperienced, but I am the Cypress. I am  _death._  Just  _try_  and take me lightly, and I'll make certain you won't live through this day."

For just a second hesitation staggered the enemy's movements, and Lily seized the moment to look directly into Yang's eyes. Suddenly the blonde found herself caught by a beam of light before her body became robbed of all freedom. No matter how she struggled she she could not move even a millimeter from her position, and Yang abruptly realized that it was the same trick Lily used when they're trapped at the warehouse, teleporting them away just before the gangsters were about to kill them. If she remembered correctly, she said it could only be used once a day –

"No," Yang whispered in horrific realization, "No, no,  _no!_ Don't do this, I'll run away now so save that spell for yourself,  _Lily_  –"

Her best friend smiled once and turned away. Yang could only scream futilely as the world eclipsed into utter darkness, and five long seconds later Yang found herself safe within the compounds of her home just outside her own room, with several servants looking scared out of their wits by her sudden appearance. She paid them no heed and crashed through the front gate, running faster than she ever had before towards the playground hoping that she wasn't too late, bearing the falling rain and shouting her best friend's name with every breath in her lungs.

But they were gone. Everywhere she looked there were black scorched grass, upturned soil. So much blood. The slides were split, the seesaw was burning, and even their favorite swing was left a mangled pile of scrap.

And she… she wasn't there. Not anymore, not ever for the rest of infinity.

* * *

_"No."_

The moment she felt the hand on her shoulder, Ruby Rose sighed on the inside and turned around. The girl understood that her ultimatum wasn't the most humane thing in the world, but sometimes sacrifices were necessary in order to eliminate the biggest threat towards mankind. If the blonde won't comply, then she had no choice but to make her.

So one could imagine Ruby's complete surprise when she felt a fist slamming her hard at the jaw, concussing her brain, and sending her skidding across the earth before sprawling on all fours on the ground. Not even her Master had ever punched her at the chin. Ruby climbed up dizzily with shock and anger riding through her veins like rampaging horses, but the moment she locked eyes with Yang, all notions of socking the blonde right back with her scythe fled away as if they were never there.

Yang Xiao Long was mad. She was  _very_  mad. Whenever the fighter drew out her Semblance her eyes would burn a distinct red, but this time there was a slight difference. This time, the blonde woman's eyes burned an angry crimson so deep that it was almost black, and her mere stare was enough to strike pure terror into Ruby's heart. Even the Demon looked hesitant to come close. Whereas her body had flared a gigantic pillar of flame an hour ago, her Semblance form was now curiously absent, but not gone. It was the opposite. Through her keen battle sense Ruby Rose realized with shock that the woman's fire was anything but depleted, and not only her Aura was at least ten times stronger than before, they're compacted so tightly within Yang's body that even the tiniest bit of energy felt like it would blow this cavern right through the roof.  _How is this possible?_  Ruby thought in disbelief,  _she was down to the last drop of her Aura, I'm sure of it! Even her capacity is completely different from a minute ago! Where is that strength coming from?_

_At what cost?_

As Yang drew closer towards her, the young girl she couldn't help but shiver a little even with her vast battle experience against the unknown. Worse, her dizziness hadn't cleared nearly enough for her to even stand, so Ruby could only brace herself as she did her best to appear fearless to the blonde.

"Do you want to know why I hit you, Ruby?"

"…Because you cannot stand listening to pragmatism?" Ruby said sarcastically.

"No. It's because you're being a fucking  _asshole_  and you know it."

Whatever retort she thought up stopped dead at her throat when Yang Xiao Long hauled the girl by the collar and pulled her close enough to feel each other's breath,

"Let me tell you something, Ruby. I have lost someone I hold very dear in the past, and I believe you understand exactly what I mean. Do we get each other? Good, because I am  _sick_ of losing my loved ones, I am  _sick_ of being helpless, and I'll be  _fucking damned_  before I give up and let the same thing happen to my own Da! I will protect him even if I lose my life, you hear me!? I don't care who I have to fight, I don't care even if I have to go against the Creator himself,  _I won't lose anyone I love ever again!_ "

The girl held her breath, before letting out a slow sigh. Her eyes stared distantly at a faraway memory, a the back of a white cloak that she missed  _so much,_  "Yang… The world is no fairy tale," Ruby whispered softly, "You can't protect everything you hold dear. No one can."

"The world is no hell either," Yang let go abruptly, and the former Executioner fell painfully on her butt, "And as long as I keep trying, as long as I don't give up, I  _refuse_  to believe that I can't do something this simple. And this time, I  _can_  and I  _will_. As for you –"

All the sudden Yang whizzed a ferocious kick directly towards Ruby's head, and the young girl instinctively swerved right only to see the blow miss incredibly wide – then hear a loud crack and howl ringing from directly behind her,  _"Get a hint already, you stupid Demon!"_

It was then Ruby finally remembered that they still have a monster as audience, and she turned around just in time to see it reeling away in anger from the failed surprise attack. Ruby cursed herself inwardly for getting massively distracted and tried pulling herself onto her feet with Crescent Rose. To her surprise, Yang caught hold of her wrist firmly and pulled her gingerly to an upright position. The young girl stared at her warily and asked, "I suppose I should say thank you, unless you plan to hit me one more time?"

"As so as long we're clear on the subject, I won't. You are my big sis after all." Yang grinned a little before letting go of her hand.

Ruby ignored the woman, and swung her scythe around a couple of times until she finally felt reasonably comfortable with her balance, "Fine. Let's proceed with the plan."

"Oi." Instantly Yang's mood took a turn for the dark, but just before she could finish her growling Ruby raised an outward palm to stop the outburst and said,

"Let me finish. Now that you've recovered your Aura, I can fully concentrate on fighting instead of worrying about your safety. You can now destroy the core and defeat the Demon once and for all. You will still have to fend for yourself once you get up there, and I cannot guarantee one hundred percent that I can block all the projectile attacks it might send at your direction, but I will do my best to protect you."

"But you won't kill my Da?" Yang took a step closer, then another, "I'm not trying to be funny here, but if you won't promise me his life, I will turn this battle into a three way, even at the risk of prolonging this fight any further than it already was."

Ruby's eyes winked ice for a second, but the young girl gave a small sigh and said with an embarrassed scratch of the head, "Yes, of course, do I look that ungrateful of a person to you? He treated me dinner, you know."

 _Now that's more like the Ruby I know._ Still, Yang laid down some extra ground rules in case Ruby tried to play funny, "No lethal attacks or aiming for vital parts. We have no idea how far we can push its self-regeneration."

"Seriously? I might as well leave a hand down his throat too so he won't starve!" Ruby complained aloud. Before Yang could supply any one of her 'witty' comments, she swung the blade of her scythe within an inch of the noisy woman's neck and instantly shutting her up.

"Grab onto Crescent Rose," Ruby commanded.

"Grab onto whaa?"

"My scythe. You wanted a boost, didn't you?" Ruby set her eyes steadily on the circling Demon, and judging from the sudden spike of power it was preparing to charge towards her. Scratch that, it's charging right now, "So grab onto Crescent Rose  _now,_ and keep your head away from the muzzle unless you want me to blow out your brain matter."

Yang squeaked as the sharp blade edged half an inch closer in eagerness. She quickly obliged and grabbed firmly onto the flat side of the scythe, "O-okay."

With a single breath, Ruby heaved with little difficulty her weapon and its passenger a feet above the air and squeezed the trigger. In an instant, Ruby Rose began spinning in sync with her scythe within a tight circle, and when Yang finally guessed her true intentions the young girl had fired more shots to magnify the motion. The Demon was temporarily slowed as all seven shots struck its abdomen with powerful knockback, and when she finally reached the peak of their momentum she swung out one last time and flung Yang directly at the statue's left eye. The young girl shouted just as the Demon barreled right into her defenses with a furious snarl, "Go!"

* * *

"Aww. And here I thought I could play the hero. Maybe I still can. Lose, Ruby – No wait that would be bad –  _almost_  lose, Ruby! You can do it!"

"Nora, I sincerely doubt that is a good thing, and Ruby Rose is an exceptional Huntress."

"Ew, spoilsport. So? Where are we going?"

"Up. I'd imagine that our men could use the help."

"Do they? I've already smashed about, let's see, a hundred thousand million idiots at the hall just now. Those crazy bastards think they can stop the invincible Vikingress! Hah!"

"… Nora."

"You should have seen me! They tried to force me down to the ground, but I pulled them off one by one and smash open their heads! And a one, and a two, and a –"

"Nora, you're on cleaning duty for the rest of the month. Alone."

"… Boo."

  
  



	8. Gold

_Twenty meters._

Yang let go at the last possible second, soaring straight and true like an arrow towards the black gem just before the Demon crashed into Ruby Rose. Her last glimpse of the duo was a messy tangle of limbs with the young girl struggling hard to free herself from the rampaging beast, and while Yang was very concerned for her safety she had not forgotten how strong the former Executioner was. She should be fine.

Ten meters.

At the moment, Yang has something she needed to place her full priority on. More specifically, she was flying directly towards a giant of stone and gem at neck breaking speed with absolutely no way but one to stop. Perhaps she should've just taken the conventional choice and climbed her way up like a certain super hot female adventurer she played in a video game, but there seriously was no time left, and despite the unusual burst of Aura coursing through her veins like liquid fire mentally Yang felt tired enough to sleep a whole week. This had to end  _now._  With a grit of her teeth, Yang retracted her good left arm into position and kept her body straight. Her fist was a rippling coat of concentrated golden fire which intense heat seemed to split the very air, and hopefully it would do the same to the target that looked far more likely to break  _her_  instead.  _No, stop, this isn't the time to feel weak._   _Two hits_ , Yang thought to herself,  _one for the left and one for the right. It's going to be slightly difficult trying to jump over to the other side after the first one, but I can do it._

Five meters.

 _I_ will  _do it_.

One.

"HAAAAH!" With fear and with doubt, Yang Xiao Long nonetheless mustered the greatest courage in her heart and slammed her burning left fist right at the flattest surface she could find. Despite being an outdoors person, Yang had watched no small amount of cartoon and superhero anime as a kid, you see. She had always been fascinated by how the heroes could harness seemingly impossible amounts of power through love, courage and hope to defeat the ultimate villain, and she couldn’t help but thought that she was now in the exact same situation looking bloody cool and awesome. Of course, her intentions were far from noble or strong as those protagonists’, but surely, surely her immense resolve and maximum power was strong enough to crush this stone like it's made out of tofu, right? Her fists are absolutely  _invincible!_

But reality disagreed. As soon as the punch connected, Yang felt every single one of her finger bones breaking apart, and if it wasn't for the perfect angle of her approach her arm would've already been torn clean off the elbow. Unfortunately, that might've been the far desirable and painless result as exactly a millisecond later, every bone in her left arm cracked under the sheer force of impact before her poor face and body slapped on the stone right after like dead fish. She was lucky to keep her teeth intact. The impossible pain stabbed into her brain like a thousand needles, and for a few seconds Yang completely lost consciousness before she realized too late that she had lost whatever little grip she had on the slippery surface. The brawler screeched out a million curses consisting of fourteen different languages she didn't even realize she still remembered then, but and as gravity finally took hold Yang closed her eyes in anticipation for what must be the most humiliating death in the history of Jiu Xu.

But she didn't fall. All the sudden Yang came to a halt as a sickening snap blasted her right into sweet oblivion and then back to suffer some more. The woman realized through the haze of stupid pain that despite everything her left arm  _did_ punch through the black gem, and had in fact gone so deep that it was buried up to the shoulders. She was stuck. It was also the only thing keeping her from falling god-knows-how-deep into the gaping maw below, and Yang thought she would've been thankful if her damn left arm wasn't burning like hell's mother fucking piss lava with a pinch of the hottest chili,

"Oh,  _fuck me_  and those stupid fucking  _fuck cartoons!_ " Yang whispered to herself with no small amount of despair. Forget trying to destroy this core, much less the other one, just how was she going to pull her bloody arm  _out_ without crying like a baby?

* * *

"…Am I  _really_  seeing what I’m seeing?" Ruby muttered as she sneaked a few glances at a certain suspended blonde idiot flailing frantic legs and cursing like a sailor. To be entirely honest, Ruby was very impressed by Yang's iron will. Any men or women who could destroy their entire arm without hesitation to achieve their goals deserved her respect. On the other hand there was a line between stupidity and bravery, and that was the absolute the stupidest thing Ruby Rose had ever seen in her life. God forbid, just who in their right minds would try to  _punch through_ a god damn  _boulder_  with her  _bare fist_ while flying at  _subsonic speed??_  It was a bloody miracle she didn’t fail and drop a thousand feet to her death!

Now Ruby was in a dilemma. Obviously she could shout out some kindly advices, or try shooting a few bullets and see if she could help free the poor woman. And she would’ve done exactly that, except that this Demon must have guessed her intent and was using every ounce of its energy to keep her abay. Of course she could’ve just zoomed past it with her Semblance, but there was something she couldn't quite name nagging behind her mind that caused her to hesitate against the obvious method. It was also the only reason she hadn't gone all out –  _couldn't_ go all out – since the start of this fight. To have her strongest card sealed without even understanding why, especially against such a powerful opponent was infuriating to say the least.

 _No time for complaints. Its manipulation of Master Taiyang's Semblance is clumsy at best – I'll disable him first and help Yang later._ In a single step Ruby cleared the twenty feet distance between herself and the Demon, and as she snuck into his blind spot the former Executioner fired off a bullet to propel her scythe in a thunderous swing against his legs. The Demon saw through her movements and easily elbowed the weapon to the ground, but Ruby wasn’t daunted in the slightest. Feeling the broken momentum of her scythe singing shrilly in her arms, as she sought with every nerve in her body a way to repair its broken flow; to reconnect it with the dance of death etched upon her mind and befell it upon this enemy.

She found it. The girl lifted Crescent Rose just a fraction leftwards and up from the ground, pulled the bolt trigger, and allowed the recoil to zoom her directly behind Master Taiyang with demonic speed before cleaving her scythe like a snake up his vulnerable arm. Her blade cracked loudly against his iron skin and drew only a tiny scratch, but it did not matter to Ruby as she vanished once again from the Demon’s view to trigger a thunderous slash across its chest. It did not matter if the enemy had incredible reflexes; it did not matter it his skin was tough as iron. As she ran rings around the Demon, speeding faster and faster with each squeeze of the trigger, striking blow after blows that only grew stronger with each change of direction, it was only inevitable that Ruby Rose would crack through its so-called impenetrable defenses. First they merely appeared as invisible lines across the Demon’s skin. Then the blood started to spray and its flesh kissing the air in chunks until finally, the Demon could no longer withstand the fury of the onslaught and bellowed in an explosion of destructive shockwaves. The ultimatum finally cut through the incessant flow of her steel, but even as Ruby Rose floated above the air light as a feather, she felt the remnants of the flow tingling all over her fingers, begging her to sow the seeds of rebirth and drew forth yet another song of death.

But no. Her objective was achieved, and Yang Ju Long once again found himself paralyzed and forced to recuperate as all four limbs missing entire chunks of flesh and tiny bits of bones. There was truly nothing it could do to stop Ruby now as she landed safely back onto the ground and bounded towards the still struggling Yang with her back facing the Demon. The opening was just pretend of course; a ploy and risk of her own choosing so she could lure out more differentiated attacks from the Demon and learn to counter them later. Better to be hit in the back when prepared than the other way around. To save time, Ruby fired a couple more bolt shots parallel to the ground and zoomed in the blink of an eye to the edge of the crevice. With ease she sank the tip of her scythe deep into the ground as anchor, and spun circles in mid-air before landing gently on top of the long frame of Crescent Rose. Finally, she looked upwards to see Yang straining her neck to gawk at her acrobatics. Oh, no.

"Yang Xiao Long," Ruby started solemnly, "Please tell me that you did something while I was buying you time."

The obvious embarrassment on the blonde's face clued Ruby in that she was not; not in the  _slightest_ , "Ah, ahahahaha! I can't seem to free myself you know, so, I watched you to, er, get some tips?"

Wordlessly, Ruby pressed down her weight onto the hilt of Crescent Rose to aim its muzzle upwards and directly at Yang. The brawler flew into a panic and apologized profusely, "I'm sorry! But I just don't know what to do! I tried to break it, I _really_ tried, I even tried my god damn  _fucking_  broken right –"

"Yang," Ruby began my pointing a thumb at her own head, then slowly moved her hands about in a series of very caring, very elaborate, and very sympathizing gestures, "Brain. Use. Semblance.  _Burn._ Understand?  _Repeat?"_

Ruby knew she was being petty, but it was still damn satisfying to see the blonde literally as Yang whined her last bits of resistance, "Oh come on, cut me some slack! I was hurting like  _fucking hell_ – RUBY!"

The young girl sensed it too. In an instant she turned around while still on top of Crescent Rose and she saw the Demon bounding on all fours towards her with unbelievable speed.  _What? How did it heal so quickly?_ With no time to spare Ruby kicked out immediately at the bolt trigger to fire her rifle and propel herself awkwardly to the left; narrowly dodging the charge that would've knocked her clean off the platform. As the girl hastily improvised on the fly and triple bolted herself across the platform like she’s riding a rocket broom, Ruby finally managed steady herself before landing gingerly back to her feet. She glanced around immediately to check how far she’d pulled away from the Demon and –

"GET DOWN!"

It was too late. Somehow, someway, despite the completely randomized pattern of her escape, the monster had followed her perfectly before landing behind her and swiping directly for her head. She had no way for her to avoid it, not without using her Semblance, and despite the warning bells shrieking on top of her head Ruby forced herself to forego her instinct and summoned her tried to Speed away to safety. Suddenly her stomach ached with unexpected pain, and to the young girl's utmost horror her Semblance  _did not work_. It was too late; the claws caught her firmly in an inexorable grip, and as it lifted her midair with its mouth splitting open into a terrible smile full of promises of vengeance, the Demon smashed her head against the floor in one downward motion. And again. And again. And again. All the while, Ruby struggled desperately to pull away, growing weaker and weaker even as she swung her gigantic scythe at its body only for it to bounce off the Demon's iron skin without so much a scratch.  _Thump!_ Her fingers slackened.  _Thump!_ Someone was screaming.  _Thump!_ It was getting really hard to open her eyes.  _Thump!_ She can’t die here, she had to keep trying –  _Thump!_ She had… to….?

_KRAKKKssssshhh._

The Demon opened its palm, letting let the girl collapse to the ground in a silent  _thud_. It licked its blood drenched fingers, ate every piece of flesh off the surface before roaring triumphantly at the headless torso of its enemy.

Ruby Rose… is dead.

* * *

_No._

Yang closed her eyes. Her breathing felt constricted; her heart thumped far too fast to be considered normal. The overwhelming dizziness that threatened to engulf her entire consciousness had nothing to do with her body condition. She had failed again.  _Again._ Just like the last time, she was utterly powerless to save the person she cared. Her mother, her best friend, her Da and now this. If she hadn't been so  _incompetent_ that she neededadvice on how to destroy some  _fucking_ stone, Ruby would have been able to focus completely on the fight. If she hadn't needed to rely on a  _fifteen years old girl_ to win her own war, Ruby would never have died at the hands of her most hated enemy. She caused this. She  _killed_ her.

 _"Uuuuu… ssk!"_ Yang stifled her cry and forced down the rising bile in her throat. She had no right to mourn Ruby. The only thing she could do, the only thing she  _must_ do now was to use every bit of strength to destroy the Demon's cores no matter what the cost. And so she dug deep into her heart and searched for the golden flames of her soul. She dragged out every last bit of energy inside her body and poured it down her left arm, willing them to  _burn_ and scorch the very thing before her eyes into mere ashes, but despite watching it changed colors from deep black to burning red it didn't evaporate as she imagined, it didn't melt, it didn't even budge despite feeling her stuck arm loosening for just a bit. This level of power wasn't nearly enough to threaten the heart of a Demon that had survived hundreds of years through time, much less two of them. She needed power. She yearned for more than she had ever wielded in her entire life combined. She –

_**BANG!** _

_**"GAAAAAGGHHHHH!?"**_ An excruciating scream escaped Yang's lips as her left shoulder exploded in a sticky mess of flesh and bones. Immediately the blonde turned her head to stare hatefully at the Demon looking up towards her from the edge of the platform, leering monstrously at her vulnerability. It was reveling in its victory, toying with its prey knowing that she could do nothing to stop it. And it was right. She could hardly think straight, her Aura was almost completely gone, and her left arm hurt so badly it was like having a scorching lump of liquid iron plugged her shoulder. Yang couldn't even remember how many times she had fainted and returned from sheer agony.

But her hatred kept Yang focused. Her hatred kept her  _functioning_. Gritting her teeth, Yang forced her Semblance to create a layer of fiery protection over her back, just in time to feel another Aura bomb slamming into her back like a motherfucking cannon ball, and then another one. She had long since given up on holding back her scream, and it didn't take long for the entire cavern to become filled with the terrible howls of death. But she didn't not stop fighting. She did not stop pouring every bit of regenerated Aura down her arm, and even went as far as to draw the energy that kept her body alive to destroy the core. After all, what did it matter if she was going to die sooner or later anyway? The Demon will die. The Demon must die  _now,_ and she would do  _anything,_ sacrifice  _everything_ to see the damn monster undone!

Something shattered inside her mind, although she could not tell what it was. What she did know was that her Semblance suddenly fire burned tenfold, a hundred fold,  _a thousand times more powerful_ than it was before, and then the Demon screamed so loud that the entire cavern shook ominously with tremor. Yang did not know where this mysterious energy came from, nor did she care as she pulled her left arm once more and saw it  _rip_ through the Demon's core as easily as cutting hot knife into butter. Delighted by this unexpected discovery, she then enveloped her whole body in flames and felt herself  _sink_ into the heart, melting everything at the barest of touch.

Before Yang knew it she was already standing inside the melted hole of pure blackness, and with a grin filled with madness she raised both her broken arms and slammed bodily into the now crooked surface. Every time she did it pure white pain blinded her consciousness, and each time she came back to exact the full price of her vengeance.  _Die!_ Yang Xiao Long snarled as she ripped out the core piece by piece and evaporating it from existence.  _Fucking DIE and SUFFER in HELL for all ETERNITY!_ Suddenly the golden Aura darkened as if tainted by something sinister, flickering light and dark as if it was waging an unseen battle, and losing. But Yang did not notice a thing. Even if she did her mind was set on the destruction of the core and that alone, and before long even her crimson eyes became shaded with a strange, black corruption. She noticed not a thing _._  Abruptly the black core hugged her as if in tight embrace, and no matter how she tried to shove it away it just kept coming pushing towards her from all angles again and again and suddenly… suddenly she found that she didn't mind the black things. Why was she fighting them again? She couldn't remember. She opened her arms gently, and the tendrils of darkness clung onto her flames for dear life before  _dissolving into the fire_ as if it belonged all along. The blonde chuckled. Then she began to laugh. Before long her laughter was joined by the Demon's, and together they screamed, “ _You think to stop me, humans? I will destroy all that stands before me! I will kill EVERYTHING! All of you, die, die, diE, Die, DIe, DIE, DIe, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIEE –"_

_"Yang!"_

Abruptly, she stopped shouting.  _What am I…?_ The woman blinked once, twice, looking around and found herself inside an empty round room. It was as if she'd just woken up from a nightmare. One that she wasn't about to leave forever until an impossible voice pulled her back from the brink.

"Yang, good job at killing the first core! Now destroy the last one!"

A couple of gunshots rang within her ears, swiftly accompanied by painful howls of the inhuman. Immediately Yang turned around and looked towards the source of the call, and one look was enough to wobble her knees and broke her into a shaky mess. She covered her mouth with choking sobs, unable to believe and yet infinitely grateful to see a crimson cloak streaking across the air like dancing butterflies, and silver eyes winking that everything was okay.

* * *

As the Demon howled in fury and confusion at the renewed assault of a supposedly dead human, Ruby Rose was gratified to see Yang getting straight to work by burning a hole through the statue to reach the second core. This way the blonde would be somewhat protected from ranged attacks, giving her the opportunity to whip this sonuvabitch that damned near killed her.  _Bu Si Mian_ tried to jump towards Yang to stop her, but Ruby Rose easily read its movements and swatted it back down to the floor like a bug. It was obvious from its slowed and weakened movements that the loss of a core was a huge blow to the Demon. Staring straight at the monster that was charging at her with blind rage, as Ruby easily dodged out of the way before she suddenly spoke,

"You really got me there. You had Ren duel nd hit me with his special move yesterday to disrupt my Semblance, didn't you? It's clever. If I hadn't forced it oute at the last second you really would've gotten me. Instead all you succeeded is to kill an afterimage. What a shame."

The Demon charged towards her again on all fours just as quick as it was before, but this time instead of running away, Ruby slammed the tip of her scythe into the ground and fired five Dust bullets in a row. Each and every one struck exactly at the center of its forehead, and the combined force knocked the Demon off balance and it ate gravel and came to a complete stop. Ruby sneered in contempt and struck the hammer of her scythe into its back; she would not fall for the same trick again!

"That being said, you're either quite careless or ignorant. You should've noticed that my 'body' had suddenly disappeared. I know that your brothers would; since some that I killed can sense heartbeats from miles away. So it's kinda strange that an ancient Demon as powerful as you didn't realize that I've run away. You even possess one of the strongest human body in the world! I wonder. Is is a defect from your premature awakening? Or maybe Master Taiyang resisted hard enough to mask my presence? Or is there some other reason?"

The Demon drew backwards as if sucking in a huge breath, then leaned forwards to spray out a huge column of destructive black flames. Even as Yang shouted out a warning, Ruby Rose had already jumped way ahead of the Demon to twirl directly above its head. The foolish monster seemed to have forgotten that her best trait was  _speed,_ and to use a slow move like that was like setting up its own execution. With a single squeeze of the trigger, Ruby dove downwards and swung her scythe to crush the Demon like a speeding truck. When the dust had settled, the Demon found itself buried chest deep into the floor, with Ruby pressing its neck firmly against her scythe with one Aura-empowered foot, and no matter how hard it struggled could not break free from mother earth herself. The Demon was truly and finally trapped, and the battle to save Jiu Xu was over.

But Ruby wasn't done. The young girl leaned in closer until her mouth was right beside its ears, and she whispered,

"I know you can hear me. I don't know who you are, what you are, how you found a way to control a Demon or what you're planning against Remnant. I don't care _._ What I want you to know is that if I ever find you, you evil  _scum_ who manipulate the Demons to torment people's lives and destroy them, I will kill you. I will destroy you. I will rip your very soul into pieces so that you'll never return to this world again. I swear on my master's name – I swear by the name of  _Rose_. You, will,  _die._ "

Ruby Rose finally lifted herself up and looked towards Yang. She thought she heard laughter, but she did not care. Let the enemies come.

She'll kill them all.

* * *

"… It was you, wasn't it?" Yang Xiao Long murmured amidst the gold and black, fire and stone, light and darkness. She waited for a moment, hoping for an answer. But there was nothing.

"I am still incredibly weak, honestly. This power isn't really mine just yet, and it scares the crap out of me to think how it keeps growing endlessly with seemingly no cost to me whatsoever. But I know that can't be true. Nothing comes without a price, and perhaps I'm burning away at my very lifespan just like mother. But it doesn't matter. I've made up my mind."

She held herself upright and shifted into a stance. Right arms drawn in, the left held shakily just below the eyes. Then, with a single breath, she punched towards the wall in front of her, and the entire right side of thestatue, along with the final shattered into smithereens amidst the thunderous roar of fire. It was over. The nightmares, the suffering, everything – it was finally over.

For now.

"I want you to know that, if you're still out there – no, you  _must be_  – I'm coming for you, no matter what you say. No one ever runs away from the great Yang Xiao Long, and when I caught you there'll be a huge list of punishments waiting for playing hooky for so long. So you better be ready."

Yang looked down from where she stood, and saw a smiling Ruby Rose waiting for her to jump at the edge of the platform. On the girl's shoulder was her fainted father, and while the old man looked to be in a very precarious state, Yang was sure that he would be fine. He wasn't called the Wild Dragon of Vytal for nothing after all. The blonde gave her brightest and cockiest smile of the day and jumped high into the sky, flying.

_I will find you, Lily._

_And this time, I will save you._

  


  
  



	9. Epilogue - Twin Wings

The next two weeks went by in a frenzy of restoration and rubble digging.

As expected, the city of Jiu Xu has suffered incredible damage and losses in just about every aspect imaginable. Almost all the bombs that had exploded that day were targeted at tall skyscrapers and setup in such a way so that the buildings would topple onto one another like dominos, and at least five thousands civilians were found dead and at with twice that number reported to be missing in action. While it was an impossible task to save every men and women trapped among all these wreckages within such a small window of time, the rescue progress at least has completely exceeded expectation. The constant flow of support such as manpower, capital, food and so on from every corner of Vytal and even the other kingdoms notwithstanding, the infamous elite combat school Beacon Academy too has sent ten Teams of students to aid in the rescue effort, and that equaled a total count of forty Huntsmen and Huntresses. These Aura empowered warriors helped out tremendously as many tasks that were first deemed impossible were accomplished rapidly with their unique Semblance abilities, and hence progress in that regard skyrocketed in earnest.

For the areas that were already cleared out, various reconstruction projects has begun immediately with the utmost haste. The appalling bombings have destroyed quite a number of areas and crippled countless infrastructures, and so entire zones in the metropolis have to be rebuilt from scratch and generally cost an obscene amount of funds and resources to sustain. Ironically, Jiu Xu was never the best planneMaster Taiyangd metropolis since it was basically transformed from the ancient layout forty years ago, and thus the massive destruction has unwittingly opened up opportunities to plan and reform the city into a new and more efficient face. Cunning investors have already begun their move and poured huge amount of capital into Jiu Xu, and combined with the disaster relief donation they're getting from kind-hearted people all over the world, the gathered funds might actually exceeded their needs. Though of course being an underworld-centric city, no one's complaining about that.

Finally, there was the Xiao Long clan. The truth of course were shrouded in mystery, and while there were people who suspected them to be the true culprit behind the terrorism, no one could deny that they had suffered the most out of every group or individual within the city. Initially, there were a total of 452 members scattered throughout the metropolis. At the end of the day, only 10 men were left standing. Even then, the men reported that they would not have survived if it wasn't for the miraculous help they received from an unbelievable source: a police inspector named Falcon who had somehow learned or their dire predicament and led them to the safety of a concealed passage at the inner wall southwest to the grand mansion. Later, as the temporary representative of her clan, Yang Xiao Long would personally walk up to the state police department and salute with the highest honor towards the wheel bound young man amidst the mass of shell-shocked personnel. But of course, she also reported that the concealed passage was now completely filled with concrete, and that he has exactly three days to pull out all of his informers – especially the one who had told him about the secret passage – before they all get a personal 'visit' from her and suffer some very unfortunate accidents. Falcon had simply responded to Yang's nasty grin with a proud middle finger of his own. Whatever the future might held for the duo, the rivalry between them was definitely not done by a long shot.

As for Master Taiyang, the central pillar and absolute authority of the Xiao Long clan had suffered severe physical injuries and was expected to be out of commission for at least many years. Even then, the real problem didn't lie with his broken body, but rather the Demon's crude manipulation of his soul that caused him to lose practically all touch and control over his own Aura. No one knew exactly how long it would take before the old man fully regained his powers, and it would not an exaggeration to say that Vytal had lost one of the most powerful Huntsmen in the world. Thankfully, the old warrior's psych didn't take too much of a hit, and he was too experienced in life to feel much sadness or disappointment over such things. The loss of his men and his family had hurt him far worse.

Currently with Master Taiyang unable to assume command of the clan, the Three Guardians have all stepped up to help manage and rebuild the household. Lie Ren was a master of administration and management, and during the Master's absence he had singlehandedly managed the household's finance and other meticulous matters while keeping both vultures and allies dancing right above his palms. Without him Yang would not have been able to negotiate half the successful trades and support they desperately needed, not to mention handle the sea of endless paperwork that threatened each day to swallow her whole amidst a mountain of ink and paper.

Nora Valkyrie – to everyone's utter surprise – was actually  _charismatic_ in her own dastardly way. She apparently had a real fan club, short form a  _cult_  which when told in the past, was completely dismissed as nonsense talk even by her close friend Lie Ren. A week earlier, when she had stepped out and sent out a summoning to all of her 'minions' within the city, the Xiao Long clan suddenly found themselves handling a group of five hundred volunteers willing to join the Xiao Long clan and follow to the end of Remnant their one true Viking Queen, Nora Valkyrie. Needless to say, her partner had literally choked on his coffee and questioned in his mind exactly how sane these volunteers were in the mind. They desperately needed the manpower however, and after a few days of vigorous testing the Xiao Long clan official admitted 200 or so people into their household and put them to work immediately, thus relieving a huge burden and worry from the trio's shoulders.

Yang Xiao Long played the charismatic daughter of the Wild Dragon and spearheaded through all the difficult negotiations and meetings to ensure the clan's survival with just as sharp an intuition and boldness as her Da, with the added advantage of her womanly assets to help secure a deal. She was also trusted with the ultimate power to make all the major decisions for the clan, and Yang had assumed the role with such capability and ingenuity no one had expected from the usually careless young woman. Without exception, anyone who tried too hard for the wrong things or thought she was an idiot were taught a rather painful lesson in humility, and not only she quickly restored the full support of the clan's allies, she also gained a high amount of respect and praise normally reserved only Master Taiyang from both enemies and allies alike. Within the short 2 weeks it was even rumored that the replacement was permanent, and that Yang Xiao Long was going to succeed her father's place as Master of the clan with aid of the two trusted Guardians of Yang, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie.

They could not be any more off the mark, however. Neither one of them had the slightest taste for leadership or management, nor did anyone believe they could stay the way they are after the too close brush with death and destruction.

* * *

"You guys are going to Beacon Academy?" Yang tried to keep from showing too much surprise, "And in 2 months time? Who's going to manage the clan when you're gone?"

Ren nodded apologetically, "I've discussed this with Master Taiyang. He believes that he will be well enough to handle some of the minor matters again at that time, and apparently a close acquaintance of his named Qrow – another person from his old group, the Rose of Summer – will come over later this week to help out. Master Taiyang seems incredibly reluctant to accept the offer though."

"Haha! Of course he would be! Da hates showing his weakness to anyone, friend or not. I guess everything's fine then! I can't wait to see the two of you in uniforms though; it would definitely be… worthwhile," Yang chuckled as she took a small sip from her coke while ignoring the white eye Ren was shooting her. The two Guardians were currently lounging about inside a nearby café during their small break, and the people bustling about the streets were just about as plenty as ever. If she pretended that the sealed off wreckage at the corner of her eyes didn't exist, it could be that the disaster never happened in the first place. Humans are such subjective creatures.

"Is Nora okay with the plan? I mean, I know she follows wherever you go, but…" Yang said.

"She's quite eager actually. I would like to think that even she felt the need to become stronger, but I guess conquering the world is a fine ambition as well," Lie Ren sighed and sipped at his green tea, before pausing for a thought, "Speaking of which, how is Ruby doing? She should have returned from her exploration by now."

A day after their war against the Demon, Ruby Rose has mysteriously disappeared with a note on the table of her room stating that she was going to venture down and investigate the black crevice where the statue had originated from. Ruby had believed that there was a hidden truth that not even the Rose of Summer and her master had uncovered, and she hoped to discover something during the exploration that might shed some light on the matter. Yang thought she was crazy to even think of venturing down that endless oblivion, but there was an undeniable ring of logic to it. If something like this was going to happen again, she wanted Jiu Xu to be at the very least ready for it.

Upon hearing the mention of her new friend, Yang started up excitedly and said, "Ah, about that! She came back this morning and talked to Da about it. Apparently there's a whole underground city beneath this one, and while Da and his old gang knew about it, at the time they were too occupied to do a thorough check. She didn't find anything else except ruins and more ruins though."

The blonde paused before sinking into a semi-serious expression, "I definitely think that there's definitely something else down there though; something very well hidden from casual view. When  _Bu Si Mian_  first descended to Remnant, he was described as a four feet tall with the face of a child. The Demon Da and his gang took down was that sixty meters tall giant bust – like geez, how did they even take down that fucking thing? Was everyone in Da's gang monsters? – Obviously something happened in between that time, where  _Bu Si Mian_  somehow changed from its human form into that huge ass statue. Ruby deduced that it was a simple transfer of consciousness… and that someone had initiated the conversion by force, which is probably the same culprit who prematurely awakened  _Bu Si Mian_ from its sleep this time too."

"... But that means the culprit is at least a few hundred years old."

"Some people live very long, apparently. And maybe some of them are no longer just people."

Yang sank into deep silence again, and Lie Ren looked equally as troubled. It took her a good ten seconds before she realized the effect of her words and quickly added, "Ah damn, you're wondering whether you should go to Beacon, aren't you? Don't worry, nothing should happen for now – besides, we have this Qrow guy coming to our city, right? If he's really part of Rose of Summer then it should be fine. Just imagine it, Ren – another super elite Huntsman that is as good as my Da. I almost feel sorry for the Demons themselves, haha!"

"… I guess you're right. The way I am now, I cannot be of any help to Master Taiyang anyway," Lie Ren sighed and half-glared at his own reflection on the tea. Normally Yang would've teased him on the subject, but she understood his feelings only all too well. Instead the blonde simply lifted her coke in a gesture of understanding, and with a small smile the duo sipped their drink in mutual silence.

"So. When are you leaving?"

Yang very nearly spat out her mouthful of coke. After a rather arduous and clumsy attempt to swallow the liquid, the brawler glared at the nonchalant gunner, "Don't just go and say something like that while I'm… like why do you even want to know?"

"Because you already know about mine and Nora's?" Oh, she really regretted not spraying coke all over his smug little face, "Because it means that our work load would double in size? Besides, anyone with half a brain would know that you won't stay still. You're going with Ruby, aren't you?"

Yang threw up her hands into the air in dramatic fashion and said with a hint of disbelief, "If you already know then why do you even bother to ask? And am I really  _that_ obvious?"

"We grew up together, Yang. Besides, nothing you do ever follows the norm," Ren picked up his spoon and began stirring his green tea with uncharacteristic hesitation, "Still, are you sure you want to do this? The Master understands your Semblance better, and perhaps even our new guest, Master Qrow can help with your training. You won't fall behind."

The hidden meaning of his words need not be said. What Ren had said was in fact exactly the dilemma she had been struggling with for the past two weeks. Ever since Ruby's arrival and the near death encounter with an entity she thought to be a myth, Yang Xiao Long had been feeling incredibly restless and impatient. Back then, during the darkest days of her life, she had given up on her dream and decided to stay forever in Jiu Xu, believing that her family needed her more. Now she realized that it was only an excuse for her not to seek out her friend's whereabouts and discover the truth behind her disappearances, which may or may not be real ugly. She had since resolved to leave Jiu Xu one day to search for Lily, and by hook or by crook save her from the hands of the mysterious enemies and bring her home. There was also the matter with the Demons too; she just couldn't ignore them now that she knew about their abominable existence. If she traveled with Ruby she'd definitely run into them again, and to eradicate them from Remnant was definitely a worthy goal to pursue along the way of her investigation.

However, when she saw her Da struggling between the brink of life and death; that her supposedly invincible father was so weak that he could barely lift up a spoon left her both shattered and very hesitant. She wanted to stay behind and take care of him, and yet this desire was in direct opposition with her wish to find Lily. Also, if she simply wanted to become stronger – she did want to grow stronger – she could've just stayed and be tutored by some of the most prestigious Huntsmen to ever live in Remnant. She would in fact face far less risks and perhaps still be as strong as compared to traveling with Ruby Rose, where every stop might mean a fatal encounter with one of the most dangerous enemies of mankind.

In the end, she had to make a decision. Ruby Rose would not stay forever, and she wouldn't even be surprised if the young girl was leaving this very moment. She had a goal she needed to see through, and after two weeks of delay it was in Ruby's best interest to hurry on her journey. There was no time left for her to ponder and brood – she was not a child anymore.

Yes… she was no longer a child.

* * *

Abruptly, Yang stood up from her seat and placed some Lien on the table. Lie Ren stared with a little confusion as the young woman turned her back towards him and walked straight for the exit. Was she angry? Perhaps he should not have asked her so directly.

Right before she opened the door though, she turned her head sideways to stare back with a twinkling violet eye and cocky as hell smile,

"Do I look like a quitter?"

* * *

Yang hiked up the small hill with little difficulty, golden hair gleaming like an angel's halo underneath the bright, fine-looking sun. Standing right on top of it was a figure of black and red whose crimson cloak fluttering free as the wind. As she approached her, the young girl turned around with a mixed look between mild annoyance and a gentle smile,

"Finally made up your mind?"

"Yeah. Sorry to make you wait," Yang walked until she was right beside her, and looked downwards to admire the beautiful city of Jiu Xu. While it was partially destroyed by the hands of malice, and the scars of that war were all too visible from the view above, it was regardless still her beloved home that she was about to leave for perhaps a very, very long time. She was going to miss it. She was going to miss it so much that she might even cry in her sleep. But she will come back; and when she does, she's going to bring along a resident who had been missing her home for a very long time too.

"Have you said your goodbyes?"

"Mm hmm."

"Is there anything you need to wrap up?"

"A shit tonne of 'em. But I'm leaving. There's something I must do, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting what I could've done."

"I see. Then it's time we go," said Ruby as she collected herself and trekked on without waiting for Yang. The latter quickly followed behind her footsteps and was soon walking right alongside her.

"Hell yeah, big sis! Epic adventure of all time and Remnant, here we come!"

"… Are you  _still_ not done calling me that?"

"Aw, but you're the boss, sis! Besides, don'tcha think it fits ya really well and is kinda cute?"

"English please, I can't follow that slang!... care to teach me how to say them?"

The duo warriors of bright colors, one red and one yellow bantered all the way until they reached some thick foliage and finally vanished from sight, leaving behind their trail only a petal of rosy red, and a spark of golden fire.

  
  



End file.
